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"M. E. S."— HIS BOOK 



Fifteen hundred copies of 
"M. E. S." HIS BOOK 

have been printed from type 
by Harper & Brothers 
and the type distributed. 



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MELVILLE E. STONE 



/Vpra jJ^ portrait by 

OSSIP PERELMA 

now in the Board Rooms of 

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

in New York City 



"M. E. S." 



HIS BOOK 

A TRIBUTE AND A SOUVENIR 
OF THE TWENTY' FIVE YEARS 

1893-1918 

OF THE SERVICE OF 

MELVILLE E. STONE 



as 



General Manager of 
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 




HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 
MCMXVIII 



5b 






In accordance with a special request of The Associated 
Press, the material prepared especially for this volume — 
pages 1-90 inclusive — is not copyrighted. 



By the courteous permission of the publishers respectively, the following 
copyrighted Articles and Addresses by Melville E, Stone are included 
in this volume: 

"The Associated Press" — from the Century Magazine, copyright, 
1905, by The Century Co. 

"The Portsmouth Conference" — from the Saturday Evening Post, 
copyright, 1915, by the Curtis Publishing Co. 

" Unto Whomsoever Much is Given " — from the volume " The 
Coming Newspaper," copyright, 1915, by Henry Holt & Co. 



Printed in the United States of America 
Published April, 1918 



y ■/ e 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

MELVILLE E. STONE has served The Associated 
Press as its General Manager during the entire 
period of twenty-five years since the Association was 
first founded under the laws of the State of Illinois. 
His appointment was confirmed by the Board of Direct- 
tors on the 3d of March, 1893, and from that day to 
this, through the most momentous epoch in the history 
of the world, he has labored unceasingly in the leader- 
ship and upbuilding of the great co-operative organiza- 
tion of American newspapers which has won a high 
reputation for efficiency, fair dealing and accuracy in 
reporting the activities of men and of nations in peace 
and war. 

This book has been compiled in pursuance of a reso- 
lution of the Board of Directors of The Associated 
Press as a souvenir of a quarter-century of struggle and 
achievement in the making of a great instrumentality 
for the service of mankind and as a tribute to the 
character and work of the man who has stood con- 
tinuously at its helm, a faithful type of its spirit and a 
leader in its achievements. 

The following Resolution of the Board expresses the 
sentiments of the one thousand members of The Asso- 
ciated Press: 

Whereas, Melville E. Stone, on the 3d of March, 
19 18, completed a period of twenty-five years as 
General Manager of The Associated Press; first 
leading with unflagging courage and determination 
in the battle which freed the telegraphic news service 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

of the Nation from control and exploitation by 
selfish private interests, and with wise enthusiasm 
and clear vision laboring for the firm establishment 
of the co-operative principle in ownership and 
management; then with extraordinary resourceful- 
ness and constructive genius planning and directing 
the development of a world-wide system of news- 
gathering and distribution — always with unswerv- 
ing devotion to the highest ideals of the newspaper 
profession and the best standards of American 
citizenship ; 

Resolved: That a suitable volume be compiled, to 
set forth in permanent form the record of the 
service of Melville E. Stone, his life and activities 
as a loyal and public-spirited American citizen ; his 
contributions by voice and pen to the advancement 
of the cause of liberty and of freedom of speech 
and of the press as furthered by a clean, responsible, 
efficient, and courageous American journalism; and 
more particularly his work for and in The Associated 
Press, to whose character, growth, and achievements 
he has contributed so much of fidelity, industry, 
and inspiration. 

Resolved: That upon the occasion of the Annual 
Meeting of The Associated Press in April, 1918, a 
copy of this volume be delivered to each member of 
the Association, and that a special copy, suitably 
bound and inscribed, be presented to Mr. Stone, 
with due expression of the admiration, gratitude, 
and affection of his colleagues. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. Introductory Note v 

II. "My Dear Mel" xi-xiii 

A Letter to Melville E. Stone, from Victor F. Lawson. 

III. Melville E. Stone 1-56 

A Biographical Sketch by John Palmer Gavit. 

IV. Melville Stone as I Have Known Him 57~6i 

A Personal Tribute by Frank B. Noyes, President of 
The Associated Press. 

V. A Servant of Press and Public 62-65 

A Personal Tribute by Frederic B. Jennings, General 
Counsel of The Associated Press. 

VI. Property in News 66-72 

An Article and a Tribute by Hon. Peter S. Grosscup, 
Formerly Presiding Judge of the United States 
Circuit Court of Appeals. 

VII. Property in News 73~75 

A Letter from Melville E. Stone to Hon. Frederick W. 
Lehmann. 

VIII. Is the Associated Press a Trust? 76-84 

An Address by Hon. Frederick W. Lehmann. 

IX. Articles and Addresses by Melville E. Stone . . 87 
The Associated Press — A series of articles, reprinted from 

The Century Magazine, comprising: 

1. News-gathering as a Business 91 

2. The Method of Operation 108 

3. Its General Foreign Service 125 

4. Removal of the Russian Censorship on Foreign News 139 

5. Its Work in War 158 

Supplying the World with News 174 

An Address before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. 
The Portsmouth Conference 189 

An Article reprinted from The Saturday Evening Post. 
The A. P. and Its Maligners 202 

An Address at Chautauqua. 

vii 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The American Newspaper 209 

An Address before the Students of the Pulitzer School 
of Journalism, Columbia University. 

Unto Whomsoever Much Is Given 224 

An Address before the Kansas State Editorial Asso- 
ciation. 

"Blazing the Trail" 239 

An Address before an Advertising Club at Grand 
Rapids, Mich. 

"The Light That Did Not Fail" 246 

A Forefathers' Day Address before the New England 
Society at Charleston, South Carolina. 

The Russian Revolution 255 

An Address before the Brooklyn Civic Club. 

The High Court of Public Opinion 265 

An Address Delivered at the Celebration of the Cen- 
tennial of the Establishment of the First Newspaper 
in Michigan. 

Criticisms of the Associated Press 273 

Two Letters in Reply to Attacks upon the Organiza- 
tion. 

News-gathering 286 

Excerpts from an Article on the History of Newspapers. 

X. Stone and the Linotype 293 

Sketch of the Part Played by Melville E. Stone in the 
Development of the Mergenthaler Typesetting 
Machine. 

XI. Verse by and about M. E. S. 297 

XII. Appendix: 

A. A Directory of the Officers and Directors of 
The Associated Press Since 1892: 

Illinois Corporation, 1 892-1 900 305 

New York Corporation, 1900-1918 307 

B. List of Officers, Directors, and Members, 1917- 

1918 310 

C. Certificate of Incorporation, By-Laws, and Reso- 
lutions of The Associated Press 336 

Index 353 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Melville E. Stone — From the Portrait by Ossip 

Perelma ..*... Fi 

Melville E. Stone — Pen-and-ink Sketch Fac 

Melville E. Stone — Portraits from the Family Album - 
Victor F. Lawson, President (i 894-1 900) of The Asso- 
ciated Press Incorporated in Illinois ' 

Melville E. Stone in 1903 ' 

"M. E. S." — From a Snapshot Taken in 1917 ... ' 
Frank B. Noyes, President of The Associated Press 

since 1900 . . / ' 

Charles W. Knapp, President in 1900 of The Asso- 
ciated Press Incorporated in Illinois .... ' 
William Penn Nixon, First President of The Asso- 
ciated Press Incorporated in Illinois .... ' 
Ralph H. Booth and E. P. Adler, Vice-Presidents of 

The Associated Press, 1917-1918 * 

Present Board of Directors of The Associated Press: 
Victor F. Lawson, Frank B. Noyes, William L. 

McLean ' 

Adolph S. Ochs, Clark Howell, Charles Hopkins 

Clark . . . , ' 

A. C. Weiss, Victor S. McClatchy, W. H. Cowles . ' 
Charles A. Rook, R. M. Johnston, D. E. Town . . ' 
E. H. Baker, Oswald G. Villard, John R. Rathom . . ' 
Former Directors of The Associated Press: 
M. H. de Young, Charles H. Grasty, A. P. Langtry, 

Stephen O'Meara ' 

W. D. Brickell, W. Y. Morgan, Don C. Seitz, Charles 

P. Taft J 

Samuel Bowles, St. Clair McKelway, William R. 

Nelson, Whitelaw Reid ' 

Albert J. Barr, Herman Ridder, Thomas G. Rapier, 

Harvey W. Scott 

Gen. Charles H. Taylor, George Thompson . . 

ix 



ontispiece v 
ng p. 2 v' 
16 ' 

20 ^ 

32 V 

48 

64^ 

80 
96 v 
112 

128 V 

144 
160 * 
176* 
192 v 

208 
224 v 

240 v 

256 

272 I 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Col. Charles A. Boynton, late Superintendent, South- 
ern Division Facing p> 272 

Executive Department Chiefs: 

F. R. Martin, J. R. Youatt, J. S. Elliott, Kent Cooper ' ' 288 K 
Division Superintendents: 

Harold Martin, Paul Cowles, L. C. Probert, E. T. 

Cutter " 304 v 

Staff Correspondents: 

C. T. Thompson, C. E. Kloeber, R. T. Small . . " 320 * 
Edwin M. Hood, a Veteran in the Washington Bureau " 320 - 
Foreign Bureau Chiefs: 

R. M. Collins, Elmer Roberts, Salvatore Cortesi, 
Charles S. Smith ' ' 336 v 

J. E. Sharkey, Walter C. Whiffen, S. B. Conger " 352/ 
William H. Reithle, the Veteran of the Service . . " 352 ■■/ 



"M. E. S."— HIS BOOK 

"MY DEAR MEL" 
By Victor F. Lawson 

Victor F. Lawson and Melville E. Stone 
have been partners for more than forty years 
— partners, as he says, in "the then little ad- 
venture of the Chicago 'Daily News,' " and in 
(t the great adventure of The Associated Press." 
Lawson followed Stone in the Directorate of the 
Western Associated Press. Mr. Lawson was 
the first President of The Associated Press of 
Illinois, and he has served continuously on the 
Board of Directors of The Associated Press in its 
present organization. It seems peculiarly fitting 
that this volume should open with his affectionate 
tribute of personal admiration and fellowship. 

MY DEAR MEL: 

For fifty years we have known each other, and 
for more than forty years we have been intimately 
associated. Out of the memories of the years I give 
you this day the greetings of affectionate friendship. 

Some one has said, that the great things of life often 
lie with their little ends toward us. It was a little 
thing that nearly forty-two years ago you asked me 
to join you in the then little adventure of The Daily 
News. But it was a great thing that twenty-five 

xi 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

years ago, as a direct consequence of our earlier asso- 
ciation, you and I, and the friends who are now gone, 
joined in the great adventure of The Associated Press. 

And how little a thing it was — that four-page, five- 
column Daily News, "published somewhere on Fifth 
Avenue behind a tree," as a condescending five-cent 
contemporary observed — that brought us together 
forty- two years ago, and how great a thing, world- 
wide in its activities and its consequence, has been 
born out of the convictions and the labors of the later 
years — labors in which you and I have been privileged 
to have a part with the good men and true of those 
early days and those who remain unto this present. 

You have now rounded out a quarter of a century in 
the service of The Associated Press. I congratulate 
you, and The Associated Press. When you were 
called to this service — and I say "called" advisedly — 
the import and large consequence of the high calling 
already foreshadowed themselves to your and our 
recognition. You came to the work in a day of stress 
when, in very truth, the independence of the American 
press was challenged by a selfish commercialism. How 
well you bore your part through all those years of 
anxious conflict, and how faithfully and wisely you 
contributed in these and later days to those con- 
structive labors upon which has been reared the 
structure of the American co-operative news service, 
is in a very large measure the history of The Associated 
Press. 

But not alone to us of the newspaper calling have 
you given the loyalty and strength of your years, 
but in a very real sense, and in a measure that only 
we who share with you the like responsibility for the 
maintenance of the wellsprings of public information 
and right action pure and untainted by sinister in- 
fluences can fully appreciate, your life has been truly 

xii 



"MY DEAR MEL" 

devoted to the public good. In a word, in all these 
years you have been the right man in the right place, 
a place of high service and of corresponding honor. 
And so I congratulate you on both your opportunity 
and your success. And I congratulate The Associated 
Press not only on what has been accomplished in all 
these years under your directing hand, but also that 
the past is but an earnest of the future as you bring 
to each day's service the gathering resources — the 
added experience and the ripened judgment — of the 
years, each better than the last. May the years that 
remain be many, as many, for you and for us, as the 
all-ruling love that is better to us each than can be 
our own desires shall permit. 

And so, as these things of the past crowd upon the 
memory, shall we not say — you and I, partner — that 
along with the chastening sorrows of life — mysteries 
which it is not given us now to understand — have 
come to us both the generous rewards of service, and 
that unto us the lines have indeed fallen in pleasant 
places. And at the last — whether it come soon or 
late — for you and for us and for all we love, may it 
be light at eventide. 

Yours in the fellowship of the years, 

Victor F. Lawson. 

Chicago, Feb. 4, 1918. 






"M. E. S."— HIS BOOK 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

By John Palmer Gavit 

WHEN Melville Elijah Stone comes to write his 
autobiography he may well take the title for it 
from the famous words of ^Eneas to Dido, "All of which 
I saw." Nor would he be greatly overstraining the 
allusion were he to add the rest of it, "And a great 
part of which I was." If there is an American, living 
or dead, who during the seventy years since, on 
August 22, 1848, "M. E. S." first opened his eyes 
upon this eventful world, or during any other three- 
score years and ten, saw and participated in more 
of such great doings as constitute "high spots" in 
history, or who in such a space of time knew per- 
sonally, not to say intimately, a greater number of the 
men whose names bulk large in national and world 
affairs, I do not know his name. 

The seventy years since 1848 have included vital 
times and happenings in the world ; the speed of human 
progress has accelerated in geometric ratio; the entire 
industrial and economic fabric of society has been 
changed by the rise and diffusion of mechanical invention 
and the factory system; transoceanic traffic and cable 
communication have all but abolished distance between 
the nations; and now, at the closing of the period, a 
vast movement toward international democracy is cul- 
minating in the greatest and bloodiest of international 
wars. Any man who lived through such a period, with 
eyes open and mind alert, would witness enough to 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

satisfy the most insatiable "lust of seeing things." Add 
to an unusual equipment of eyes and mind the respon- 
sibility for operating during a quarter-century a world- 
wide organization of trained observers, and a globe- 
surrounding system of high-speed communication, with 
constantly multiplying opportunities to meet face to 
face the commanding figures of the men who make 
events happen, and you will have a bulk of memories 
and acquaintance given to few men under the sun. This 
is an entirely moderate statement of what the years 
have brought to Melville E. Stone. 

Sit down with him now, in the March that crowns 
twenty-five years of service with The Associated Press, 
and get him to talk over the things that he has seen 
and the folk with whom he has associated in all these 
eventful years. Hardly can you name a man, high or 
low, monarch or statesman, inventor or merchant, labor 
leader or politician, soldier or preacher, whose personality 
and activities have had much influence in the affairs 
of the world, but Stone has broken bread or crossed 
swords with him. Hardly can you mention a great 
happening that stirred the blood of the world during 
two generations, but he was there or thereabouts, keenly 
observing the reactions of it or organizing the machinery 
that told the world of its ins and outs. At your break- 
fast-table in your morning paper you have taken as a 
matter of course his handiwork; upon your confidence 
in the reliability of his subordinates you have staked 
your judgment of the world's affairs, and in the busi- 
ness of your daily life you have been guided by what 
they told you of what your fellow-men in all activities 
of life were doing. 

Few men realize the great public service that has been 
rendered to the American people and to the world by 
the men who formed the present organization of The 
Associated Press. In its earlier forms it was tremen- 
dously useful ; but its character and integrity were in 
peril of misuse and sinister perversion to ignoble ends. 




MELVILLE E. STONE. 1918 
(From a pen-and-ink drawing by Modest Stein) 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

Melville Stone and his associates more than twenty 
years ago wrested the telegraphic news service of the 
country from selfish hands into which it had fallen, and 
with steadily increasing success have built the great co- 
operative organization of American newspapers which is 
now and in time to come will be still more a sufficient 
monument for any man or group of men. 

There is something more. At this very writing there 
is awaiting the judgment of the Supreme Court of the 
United States an issue involving a central matter in the 
fabric of The Associated Press and its service to the 
public — that is, the question whether its honest and 
unselfish labor in the interest of the truth shall be 
stolen, with or without distortion of the facts, by those 
who for years have been parasites upon its industry. 
If the highest court shall confirm the judgment of the 
courts below in sustaining the principle of the right of 
Property in News it will place the capstone upon that 
structure which Melville Stone and his colleagues have 
erected in the great educational association founded upon 
the cornerstone of mutual welfare and co-operation. In 
the activities leading up to this consummation, and in 
the daily work underlying it, the figure of Stone has 
been dominant, and he has achieved for himself what 
will more and more appear an unique place in the history 
of American journalism. 

Yet he would be the last to claim for himself, even so 
much as the bare facts accord to him, the credit for what 
has been accomplished. Never has he failed to de- 
precate any such pre-eminence for himself. "Victor F. 
Lawson of the Chicago Daily News, Charles W. Knapp 
of the St. Louis Republic, Frederick Driscoll of the 
St. Paul Pioneer Press, and those associated with them 
in that contest," said Mr. Stone, for example, in his 
series of articles about The Associated Press in the 
Century Magazine in April, May, June, July, and 
August, 1905,* "deserve the lasting gratitude of the 

* Reprinted in this volume, page 91, et seq. 
3 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

American people for having established, at a vast cost 
of time, labor, and money, a method of news gathering 
and distribution free from the chance of contamina- 
tion." And again, in Collier's Weekly, July n, 1914,* 
speaking of the men who founded the present organiza- 
tion of The Associated Press, he said : 

With a full appreciation of their responsibility, and a full 
recognition of their duty to the American people, they 
sought to work out the problem before them in the best 
possible fashion. If they did not succeed, then the effort 
of as patriotic and well-minded a set of men as this country 
has ever known is a failure. At one stage of the contest 
they pledged themselves for hundreds of thousands of dol- 
lars as a guaranty fund to break the chains which, at the 
moment, bound the American press to enslavement to three 
men. 

In other words, and repeatedly, he has paid tribute to 
the " strong and devoted body of men" who worked to- 
gether to free the news service of the nation from the 
grasp of self-seekers and profit-making exploiters ; always 
has he accorded to them the credit for the victorious 
battle for the liberty and self-respect of the American 
press, ignoring or at least minimizing his own doughty 
service on the firing-line. On the other hand, neither 
to himself nor to his associates has he arrogated the 
rights or privileges of " insiders." Absolutely typical 
of the spirit of the thing is this that he wrote in the 
Service Bulletin of The Associated Press in January, 1905 : 

. . . The Associated Press is the property of its mem- 
bers, each of whom should feel a sense of responsibility 
respecting it, and should be disposed to exercise freely 
their right to make suggestions for its betterment. It is 
often the most valuable asset of a newspaper, yet there are 
editors who treat it as a hostile concern and permit editorials 
denouncing it to appear in their columns. As well might 
they denounce in an editorial their specials or the machinery 
upon which their papers are printed. 

* "Criticisms of the Associated Press," in this volume, p. 273 et seq. 

4 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

In all this business, in all the aspects and relation- 
ships of life, Melville Stone has been typically American 
and democratic to the roots of his being; efficient and 
commanding in his executive functions — after the Amer- 
ican fashion; simple, unassuming, unaffected, sym- 
pathetic, friendly — after the American fashion. Some- 
thing in the fiber of his character has made him at one 
with men of every kind. 



THE reason is not far to seek. He has lived an in- 
tensely American life, and it has carried him over al- 
most the whole gamut of American experience. His biog- 
raphy represents in a very real sense a cross-section of 
American history during a most significant and eventful 
period. He was not born in a log cabin, to be sure, nor 
has he worked as a day-laborer, but his childhood 
was passed in very straitened circumstances. His 
father, the Rev. Elijah Stone, was a Methodist circuit- 
rider on the prairies of northern Illinois, and at the time 
when Melville Stone was born, at Hudson, McLean 
County, his income did not much exceed three hundred 
dollars a year. Needless to say, that spelled economy! 
As Mr. Stone himself says : 

"That three hundred dollars included the annual 
'donation,' from which we received some help, no doubt, 
but a large part of it consisted of things of no use or 
benefit whatever. You may imagine the stringency of 
the situation from the fact that to eke out his living 
my father had to resort to many expedients from which 
your modern preacher certainly would shrink — such, 
for instance, as making and selling 'Stone's Chinese 
Liniment for Man and Beast.' And when the daguerre- 
otype came over from France he secured a camera 
and set himself up as portrait-taker to the community.' 

The Methodist rule of itineracy, under which in those 
days a preacher could stay only two years in one place, 
moved the family all over central and northern Illinois, 

5 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

almost always in comparatively small places. I do not 
know whether they ever joked themselves — any Metho- 
dist preacher's family can tell you it was no joking 
matter — about their being "rolling Stones," but it 
violates no family secret to assert that they "gathered 
no moss.'' And in all these travels they tasted the 
bitterness of poverty, and one may venture to believe 
that out of those days comes the background for a deep 
sympathy with the struggles of the respectable poor 
which has been characteristic of Melville Stone through- 
out his life. 

There was another thing that made its impress. His 
father's house was a station on the Underground Rail- 
road — that great secret interlocking system of human 
hands and hearts that extended along the borderland 
between North and South by which runaway negro 
slaves were passed along from the land of bondage to 
Canada, the law of the land to the contrary notwith- 
standing. The little boy who saw this thing in opera- 
tion in his own home, and who helped to keep the 
secret that protected the lives of black fellow-men in 
their dire peril, never afterward could be deaf to the 
appeal of humanity in distress or unresponsive to the 
aspiration for liberty on the part of men and women of 
any race. 

If there be anything in the belief prevailing among 
newspaper men that a specific microbe infests those who 
belong to the craft and that once it has bitten you there 
is no cure forever and ever, I suspect young Stone got 
his infection one day in 1858, when he was ten years old, 
at DeKalb Center, when a quaint old gentleman sat in 
the "pastor's pew" in his father's church and scandalized 
the boy by appearing to go sound asleep during the 
sermon. After church this old gentleman went home 
with them, and during the dinner-table conversation dis- 
played minute recollection of the sermon and discussed 
it vigorously with the preacher. The following evening he 
lectured in the church. His name was Horace Greeley. 

6 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

But not even Greeley can be held responsible for the 
fact that something like eighteen or nineteen members 
of the family of Melville Stone's mother, who was 
Sophia Creighton, have engaged in journalism. Any- 
way, long before he was twenty years old young Stone 
had his hands in printer's ink, and any newspaper man 
can tell you that one drop of it on human fingers is fatal. 

About i860 the family moved (for a second time) to 
Chicago, where the Rev. Elijah Stone was assigned to 
the old Desplaines Street Methodist Church, now known 
as Centenary Church, and Melville entered the Chicago 
High School on Monroe Street near Halsted — the same 
school now called the West Division High School — ■ 
and there got all that he has had in the way of formal 
schooling, a fact quite ignored, or, better still, duly 
appreciated, by Yale University when it made him a 
Master of Arts, and by Ohio Wesleyan University and 
Middlebury College when they gave him each the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 

He did study French in those days — in a country 
store. Or, rather, French, of a kind, was inflicted upon 
him. He and his brother Ormond (the latter now a 
distinguished astronomer) stayed at school in Chicago 
when the family was transferred to Kankakee; but in 
the summer vacation Melville went home and "clerked" 
in Frederick Swannell's store. Bourbonnais, a few miles 
from Kankakee, was a French-Canadian settlement, 
and they talked there French, of a sort — a sort such 
that from that day to this it has annoyed Melville 
Stone, who much prefers when he speaks French to use 
the Parisian variety. It is only fair to add that Stone's 
French nowadays is perfectly good French. 

It was in 1864 that he first dipped actually into news- 
paper work, the real thing. One of his classmates in 
the high school was John F. Ballentyne, son of the com- 
mercial editor of the Chicago Tribune, and the latter 
invited young Stone to join his staff during the summer 
vacation of that year. At first he worked in Mr. Bal- 

7 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

lentyne's department, but it was not long before he was 
"on the street" as a reporter. Great things lie in the 
background of the memory of those summer days — 
one of them was the simultaneous announcement of the 
capture of Vicksburg by Grant and the victory at 
Gettysburg. The Tribune staff celebrated both with 
fireworks. 

At that period Stone had no notion of being per- 
manently a newspaper man. He thought he wanted to 
be a lawyer, and under the supervision of the firm of 
Brackett, Waite & Wilder was spending evenings study- 
ing law. It was no perfunctory relationship. Judge 
Waite, who had been chief justice of the territory of 
Utah, was a lawyer of distinction; but more vital than 
that to Stone was the fact that the judge and Mrs. 
Waite had been classmates with his father and mother 
at Knox College. But it was not to be. Along with the 
Greeley microbe there worked very lively doubts in his 
mother's mind as to the possibility of her boy's being 
at once a lawyer and a good man. One is entitled to 
draw inferences as to the net conclusion of those doubts 
from the undeniable fact that at his mother's urgent 
behest Melville Stone abandoned his ambitions in that 
direction. 

Even then he was, as he had been from earliest boy- 
hood, and has been ever since, an eager and appreciative 
reader of newspapers, interested in every sort of doings 
in every part of the world. It was his custom to rise 
early and, en deshabille, get the morning paper fresh from 
the newsboy's hand. Those were days, almost like 
these of 1918, when the news from day to day came very 
close to one's own flesh and blood; when from the first 
page of any issue there might leap forth tidings that 
some one near and dear had fallen in the war that then 
was filling North and South with tragedy. During the 
most impressionable years of this lad's boyhood, from 
twelve to seventeen, the Civil War was raging. On a 
certain morning in April, 1865, half -dressed at the front- 

8 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

door of his father's house on West Madison Street in 
Chicago, Melville Stone found in the morning paper a 
thing. . . . Let him tell it: 

" . . . It was scarcely dawn as I bounded through the 
house, crying out the dreadful news of the assassination 
of President Lincoln. ... I dressed as fast as I could, 
and, without waiting for breakfast or anything else, 
hurried to the Tribune office. I had worked there under 
Mr. Ballentyne some time before, and felt that I could 
get access to further news of this incredible disaster. 
When I reached the place I could not get into the 
building because of the dense crowd. The street was 
packed. The windows were filled with bulletins, and 
their purport was repeated from mouth to mouth. It 
seemed that the assassins had killed not only the Presi- 
dent, but Secretary Seward, General Grant, and the 
Vice-President, Andrew Johnson. 

"The wild burst of rage that swept the crowd was 
beyond any description. The smallest spark would have 
precipitated a vast outbreak of violence against any- 
thing or anybody that could have been welcomed as a 
victim. Unable to enter the Tribune Building, I made 
my way around the corner to the Mattison House, which 
was located a block away, on the corner of Dearborn 
and Randolph streets. The big rotunda was packed, 
and excitement there as elsewhere was at the highest 
pitch. 

"Suddenly above the roar of voices there rang out a 
shot, and in the middle of the room a man fell. His 
assailant stood there perfectly composed, and with 
smoking pistol in his hand justified himself: 

"'He said, "It served Lincoln right!'" 

"No one molested him. There was no arrest. He 
walked out of the place a hero. I never knew who he 
was." 

Melville Stone was then not yet seventeen years old. 

In that year Charles A. Dana came to Chicago to buy 
the Chicago Republican. After a few months a large 

9 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

company of Tribune men went over to him, and young 
Stone also joined his fortunes with the enterprise. For 
some two years the Republican went on with more or 
less steadily waning success. There never had been 
capital enough behind Dana to make the paper go, and 
at last he had to give it up; he went to New York and 
purchased the Sun. You cannot read the work of 
Dana, or of Melville Stone, in the Chicago Republican, 
because the only file of the paper was destroyed in the 
Great Fire of 187 1. 

In 1868 Stone was sent to New York by the Chicago 
Times to help report the Democratic National Conven- 
tion which nominated Seymour and Blair. This was 
the beginning of his long and intimate familiarity with 
national politics, but in this instance there was a hu- 
miliating episode which terminated for the moment his 
newspaper activities. 

Young Stone wrote his story of the convention, and, 
feeling very inexperienced and needful of the help of an 
older craftsman, took it for vise to Wilbur F. Storey, 
editor of the Times, whom he found at the Hotel St. 
Denis, with General Singleton of Illinois, discussing af- 
fairs over a bottle of champagne. At best, Wilbur 
Storey was none too urbane ; on this occasion the cham- 
pagne may have contributed additional vigor to the 
vocabulary with which he ordered the young reporter 
off the premises. Stone sent his story to Franc B. 
Wilkie, his immediate superior on the convention job, 
and along with it his resignation from the Times, forth- 
with returning to Chicago. Once only thereafter he 
saw Wilbur F. Storey; that was many years afterward 
when he called upon him to secure his consent to an 
Associated Press franchise for the Chicago Daily News. 
He got it. Mr. Storey was in a better mood; he was 
"glad to help one of the old Times boys." His amia- 
bility was augmented, perhaps, by a consideration of 
$5,000 (the amount fixed by himself). The occasion 
was not marred, as one might have hoped, by any 

10 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

mention on Stone's part of the unhappy encounter of 
1868. 

"Even so early," says Mr. Stone in relating the in- 
cident, "I had learned that it is inexpedient to stick pins 
in any portion of a lion's anatomy while you have your 
head in his mouth." 



AFTER leaving the Times Stone became a manufact- 
«** urer. The Rev. Elijah Stone, his father, had been 
compelled by failing health to relinquish the active min- 
istry. With his brother, Nathaniel F. Stone, an inventor 
of some note, who had been successful in the manufacture 
of certain sawmill appliances, he came to Chicago and 
established a factory. Melville Stone had helped them 
in various ways, and for a time he worked in their es- 
tablishment. But the printer's ink was "in his sys- 
tem," and within a few months it broke out upon him 
again and brought him forth for the first time as a full- 
fledged publisher in his own proper name and person. 
In witness whereof exists to-day a letter-heading of 
"Melville E. Stone, General Dealer in Saw and Flour 
Mills and Furnishings," incidently bearing advertise- 
ment of The Sawyer and Mechanic — "the Only Paper 
Published in the United States Devoted to Saw and 
Flour Mill Work." The subscription price was fifty 
cents, and the editor and publisher was Melville E. 
Stone, at 168 Clark Street. Said Stone at that time 
was barely twenty years of age. The Sawyer and Me- 
chanic was not long-lived. 

Presently his father bought for him a third interest in 
the Lake Shore Iron Works, a foundry and machine-shop 
located on the north side of Chicago near the lake front, 
at 3 7 1-3 7 7 Illinois Street. Presently Stone bought out his 
two partners, and the style became "Melville E. Stone, 
Maker and Factor of Hardware. ' ' The business was suc- 
cessful, and the young captain of industry in his mind's 
eye saw himself a millionaire. In the golden glow of that 

11 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

alluring prospect, three months after his twenty-first 
birthday, on the 25th of November, 1869, he married 
Miss Martha J. McFarland, daughter of John Stuart 
McFarland of Chicago. 

One of the things manufactured by the Lake Shore 
Iron Works was the iron folding theater chair, which 
came into use about that time. Stone acquired access 
to a good patent, and made success with a folding-chair 
of his own. He supplied a thousand of them to Woods' 
Museum, and in the summer of 187 1 got a contract to 
furnish another thousand for the rejuvenated Crosby 
Opera House. He made and installed them, and on a 
certain Monday in October the Opera House was to re- 
open with a concert by Thomas's Orchestra. On Sun- 
day evening there was an informal inspection of the 
house, which was beautifully decorated and illuminated. 
Some one in the party, apropos of the fact that the 
chief stage carpenter had lost his all the night before 
by the burning of his home, remarked what a tragedy 
it would be if the Opera House should burn. Mr. Crosby 
laughed at the suggestion. 

"I have figured it out," he said, "that there is a 
theater fire every five years. We had one two years 
ago; so we are immune for another three years." 

That night the Great Fire of Chicago swept away 
Crosby's Opera House, together with nearly $200,000,000 
of other property; took 250 human lives and left 
100,000 people homeless and destitute. Incidentally, 
it destroyed practically everything Melville Stone had 
in the world— except his indomitable spirit and his 
impulse to be in the midst of things and to help his 
fellow-men. Before the flames had died down he was 
busy with other leaders in the public activities of Chicago 
planning to minister to the needs of the destitute and to 
restore something like normal conditions of life in the 
stricken city. Before long he was put in charge of the 
temporary barracks erected on West Madison Street for 
the homeless, and during the whole winter of 1871-72 

12 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

was about his business as almoner to the needy and 
active participant in the plans for the reconstruction of 
the city. 



SO THE hand of fate turned Stone back to the news- 
paper business. The Chicago Republican, struggling 
against adverse circumstances ever since Dana gave it 
up, had been one of the victims of the fire. Its astral 
body, so to speak, and the surviving "good- will," were 
purchased by Jonathan Young Scammon, a leading 
banker, who determined to revive the paper under the 
name of the Inier-Ocean. It happened that Mr. Scam- 
mon was president of the Chicago Astronomical Society, 
and through their common interest in astronomy had 
become acquainted with Ormond Stone. The latter 
had mentioned his brother Melville as a newspaper man, 
whom Mr. Scammon now summoned to become the 
managing editor of the new Inter-Ocean. Col. J. K. C. 
Forrest was made editor-in-chief. 

Stone went at his job with earnestness and enterprise. 
He tells now, with none-too-convincing simulation of 
remorse, of certain exploits of his own in the way of 
achieving "beats" for his paper, such, for instance, as 
surreptitiously acquiring and giving exclusive and pre- 
mature publication to the report of the fire chief upon 
the Great Fire, and disclosing what was designed to be 
a secret report of a church trial. These examples of 
ultra-modern newspaper enterprise won much glory for 
Stone in Chicago newspaperdom, but they were somewhat 
scantily appreciated by Mr. Scammon, whose ethical code 
was not adjusted to that sort of enterprise. It may be 
that he was not immune to the indignation of the victims 
of it ! Anyway, there came about a shift, through which 
Stone became city editor of the Inter -Ocean, and the 
managing editorship passed to Elijah W. Halford, previ- 
ously editor of the Indianapolis Journal and subsequently 
private secretary to President Benjamin Harrison. 

13 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

During the summer and fall of 1872 Mr. Stone did 
much editorial writing for the Inter -Ocean, especially in 
support of the campaign for the re-election of President 
Grant, a cause which the paper ardently espoused. But 
the experiences which already had overfilled the life of 
this young man of twenty-four had broken his health, 
and the Inier-Ocean gave him a long leave of absence, 
during which for five months he made an extensive tour 
of the Southern States, then in the throes of Carpet- 
bag Reconstruction. On this trip he made the ac- 
quaintance of many of the men who had been con- 
spicuous figures in the Confederacy, as well as of the 
Northern politicians who, like a plague of grasshoppers, 
were then afflicting the South, prostrate, as it was, 
under the burdens left by the Civil War. 

Upon his return to Chicago in the early summer of 
1873 he found himself in no physical condition to resume 
the nerve-racking work of a morning newspaper, and 
resigned finally from the Inier-Ocean to take up the 
daytime work on an afternoon paper, in the editorship 
of the Chicago Evening Mail, a two-cent paper edited 
by the Rev. Oliver A. Willard, brother of Frances E. 
Willard, the famous temperance advocate. Almost im- 
mediately the Mail was consolidated with the Chicago 
Evening Post, and before long Mr. Stone went to the 
National Capital as Washington correspondent, where 
he served not only the Post and Mail, but also the New 
York Herald. Of course, in Washington he greatly en- 
larged his already wide acquaintance with national 
affairs and national figures, and by the time he returned 
to Chicago had himself achieved a journalistic reputa- 
tion of enviable magnitude. 

It was while in Washington, during the better part of 
two years, reporting the eventful sessions of the Forty- 
third Congress, that Melville Stone conceived the idea 
of a one-cent evening newspaper in Chicago. When he 
returned to the West his mind was full of it, and with 
what little money he had he backed William E. Dough- 

14 






MELVILLE E. STONE 

erty in the launching of the one-cent Chicago Herald. 
Stone's name was not mentioned in connection with the 
enterprise — that may be one reason why it was short- 
lived. Nothing daunted by the fate of his journalistic 
foster-child, Stone resigned from the Post and Mail in 
the late fall of 1875, and, despite the protests and ridi- 
cule of his employers and associates on that paper, on 
Christmas Day, 1875, P u ^ forth an experimental issue 
of the Chicago Daily News — the original one-cent paper 
of the West — with announcement that on the first day 
of the new year it would appear regularly. Associated 
with him in the enterprise were his friends Dougherty of 
the lamented Herald and an Englishman named Percy 
R. Meggy, who is now a well-known figure in the labor 
movement in Australia. 



WITH the founding of the Chicago Daily News 
Melville Stone entered .upon the third of the 
vital stages of his career. During the last quarter- 
century he has come to be so fully identified in the 
public mind with The Associated Press that many per- 
sons forget his responsibility for one of the most brilliant 
successes in the history of American journalism. As 
Victor F. Lawson said in the editorial * in which he bade 
farewell and godspeed to his comrade, "To have exer- 
cised the responsibilities of the editorial conduct of the 
Daily News from its first issue to the present time, and 
to have seen that responsibility steadily widen in its 
application until it touches a daily constituency the 
largest, with a possible single exception, in America, may 
well fill the measure of one man's ambition, and as well 
discharge one life's duty." 

For in the Daily News Mr. Stone established, and 
largely by his personal force and genius developed, one 
of the cleanest, most independent, most effective in- 
struments for the public welfare that this country ever 
* Reproduced on page 22 of this volume. 
15 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

has seen. The impulse which he initiated still goes on. 
Regardless of what he has since accomplished in his 
leadership of The Associated Press, the great newspaper 
of which he was the father would be, as Mr. Lawson said, 
enough monument to perpetuate and do honor to the 
ambition and work of any man. 

About him he gathered a remarkable staff. It may 
be doubted whether any other newspaper in America — 
certainly any west of the Appalachians — has a larger 
list of notable alumni. 

"I think," Mr. Stone himself has said of that unusual 
group of men and women, "that the staff of the Chicago 
Daily News was one of the most remarkable for brilliancy 
and efficiency that I ever have known. Among the 
contributors to the paper were Bill Nye, James Whit- 
comb Riley, Grace Greenwood, Kate Field; and among 
those continuously employed were Eugene Field ; Gilbert 
A. Pierce, afterward Governor and United States Sena- 
tor from North Dakota; Slason Thompson, the well- 
known playwright; George Ade; John T. McCutcheon; 
Peter Finley Dunne ('Philosopher Dooley'); John J. 
Flynn, now the brilliant editorial writer for the Christian 
Science Monitor; Willis Hawkins, Harry B. Smith, the 
well-known librettist, and others." 

The Daily News was a success from the word go. It 
began with a circulation of nine thousand and fairly 
leaped into public confidence. It was but a short time 
before Stone and his associates bought in the remains 
of the Post and Mail, including its plant and its franchise 
in The Associated Press. The Daily News had simply 
crowded its two-cent competitor off the map by sheer 
superiority in quality and enterprise. 

Stone bought out the interest of Dougherty and Meggy, 
but the job was too big a one for his financial resources 
to carry. In the newspaper business, especially, it is 
possible to have more business than you can afford. 
In their eagerness to produce the best possible newspaper 
they put out unexpectedly large issues of the paper. 

16 





1856 — AGED 



1872— AGED 24 





188 — AGED 40 



1899— AGED 51 



Melville E. Stone 
{From the family album) 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

There was immediate need of larger press facilities, and 
the fashion in which the Daily News set about to cover 
the news of the world called for very heavy outlay. New 
capital was absolutely necessary. Then it was that 
Victor Fremont Lawson was called in as joint owner, 
and from that time on until their final parting in 1888 
Stone and Lawson conducted the business, Stone in sole 
charge of the editorial department, Lawson supreme in 
the business office. In 1883 the partnership form of 
association expired by limitation, and a stock corporation 
was formed, but Stone and Lawson owned the stock. 

Not content with — or, rather, inspired by — the success 
of the Daily News as an evening paper, in 1881 a morning 
edition was instituted, under the title ' ' Chicago Morning 
News." It was highly successful from the outset, and 
subsequently, under Mr. Lawson's ownership after the 
retirement of Mr. Stone, became the Chicago Record. 
It was to the Morning News that Eugene Field made his 
contributions, principally in the form of the "colyum" 
of "Sharps and Flats," which drew its title from a play 
by his colleague on the News, Slason Thompson. 

The case of Field was typical of Stone's relations with 
his employees then and always. Stone had met Field 
first in the office of the St. Louis Dispatch in the time 
when, as managing editor of the Post and Mail, detailed 
for service as Washington correspondent, he had gone 
to St. Louis to consult Stilson Hutchins about the 
Washington correspondence for the St. Louis Times 
which he had engaged to furnish during the ensuing 
session of Congress. On the counter of the Dispatch 
business office Stone found seated ' 'a lank and cadaverous 
figure, smooth of face and bald of pate," telling stories 
which convulsed every one within earshot. It was 
Eugene Field, and the grasp of his hand and the cheery 
friendliness of his greeting made Stone an old friend 
instanter. The relationship from that moment was life- 
long, but it was several years before they began their 
work together. In the spring of 1883 Stone found Field 

2 !f 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

at Denver and engaged him to come to Chicago and join 
the staff of the News. There is an amusing, and at the 
same time pathetic, letter written from Denver on 
April 26, 1883, in which Field laid down the principle 
that he was to have an annual increase of salary : 

I will contract with you for two or three years, to do the work you 
specify, for $50 per week the first year, and $50.50 per week the 
second year. . . . The reason I tack on the 50 cents for the second 
year is to gratify a desire I have to be able to say I am earning a 
little more money each year. This is a notion I have been able 
to gratify ever since I began reporting at $10 a week. 

" After mature deliberation," says Mr. Stone in re- 
counting the negotiations, "I yielded to this exorbitant 
demand, and Field came. For some twelve years he 
contributed the prose and verse which have made him 
famous. Not only did he write every line that ever 
appeared in his column of 'Sharps and Flats,' but virtu- 
ally everything that he wrote after 1883 appeared in that 
column. His books, which have had so wide a circula- 
tion throughout the whole world, and have given the 
public so much of pleasure and exquisite pain, are chiefly 
selections from his work for the Chicago Daily News" 

Characteristic of both men' and of the rollicking at- 
mosphere of the office is an incident which took place 
only a few weeks after Field's arrival. Mr. Stone had 
made it a practice to give a Thanksgiving turkey to 
every married man on the staff. Two or three days 
before Thanksgiving he received a note from Field, say- 
ing that he had heard of the custom and thought very 
well of it, but if it .was all the same to the giver he 
would prefer a suit of clothes. Mr. Stone promptly com- 
plied with the suggestion. Major R. W. McClaughry, 
warden of the Illinois Penitentiary at Joliet, was an old 
friend of his, and he sent to him for the suit — of prison 
stripes. On Thanksgiving Day, with appropriate cere- 
monies, Field's request was satisfied, and that suit was 
the " property" in many a funny episode in the News 
office thereafter. 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

But joyous and happy as was the family, and full of 
pranks by Field and others as was the life within the 
office, the News was a very serious factor in the life of 
Chicago and of the Middle West, through which its 
influence spread rapidly. The standards of the paper, 
established at the outset, were of the highest ; they may 
well be studied now by editors who devote themselves 
to the public service. At that time they were all but 
revolutionary. Perhaps the best statement of them 
may be found in Mr. Stone's address, April 9, 191 2, before 
the Kansas State Editorial Association.* 

"The first rule was that the newspaper should be run 
distinctly in the interest of the public; the subscriber 
was to have chief consideration. It was recognized that 
a newspaper has in its editorial department three 
offices to perform: first, to print the news; second, to 
strive to guide public opinion in a proper direction, and, 
third, to furnish entertainment. . . . There was an un- 
breakable rule that nothing should appear in the columns 
of the paper which a young woman could not read aloud 
in the presence of a mixed company. . . . 

"Another rule was that the paper should make every 
effort to see that its news was truthful and impartial, 
and if at any time we were led into a misstatement, noth- 
ing gave me greater pleasure than to make a fair, frank, 
and open acknowledgment and apology. . . . 

"The third rule divorced the business and editorial 
departments absolutely. No line of paid reading matter 
ever appeared in the columns of the paper." 

The business office was under rules equally straight- 
forward and conscientious. Advertisers were told the 
truth about the scope and clientele of the constituency; 
rates were fixed and absolute — nobody could get an 
advertising rate not available for any one else under like 
conditions. The actual paid circulation was printed 
under oath every day at the head of the editorial page. 
There was no flamboyant boasting about advertising or 
* See " Unto Whomsoever Much Is Given," page 224 in this volume. 

19 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

influence. The paper stood on its own feet in the open 
daylight, and the public could take it or leave it on its 
merits. They took it. Its business grew, and its in- 
fluence grew, enormously. 

Every good thing in the life of the city found an ag- 
gressive supporter in the Chicago Daily News. Every 
bad thing learned to fear and hate it. Its independence 
and wholesome non-partisanship made its advocacy a 
mighty bulwark of progress and public welfare ; crooked 
business and crooked politics found it a terrible and un- 
relenting enemy. Volumes might be written about the 
service of this newspaper to innumerable forms of battle 
for clean things; about its merciless and sometimes 
world-wide pursuit of those who sought profit out of 
crime and public corruption. Municipal abuse of power 
was constantly a target for exposure and denunciation. 
The rounding up and punishment of the "Haymarket 
Anarchists" was largely due to the relentless efforts of 
the Daily News under Stone's direction. Many were 
the men who would have escaped the pursuit of the 
ordinary machinery of the law had it not been for 
the work of this newspaper, and who found them- 
selves in prison despite the most ingenious plans to 
elude pursuit. 

At the same time that he was unrelenting in pursuit 
and feared as an enemy, Stone's warmth of heart and 
democratic sympathy of nature made him quick to for- 
give. On many occasions the men whom he drove into 
prison were later pardoned before their terms were out 
through his intercession because he had become con- 
vinced of the sincerity of their repentance and the suf- 
ficiency of their punishment. 

Now and then out of his past experience came a mem- 
ory or a skill to stand him in good stead. The Daily 
News was hardly three months old when at midnight one 
night the boiler in the building blew up. Ex-Manu- 
facturer Stone knew just what to do; almost before 
morning a portable boiler and engine were installed, 

20 




Victor F. Lawson 

PRESIDENT. 1894-1900. OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 
INCORPORATED IN ILLINOIS 



MELVILLE E. 



STONES FRIEND FOR FIFTY YEARS; 
"CHICAGO DAILY NEWS" 



HIS PARTNER IN THE 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

and it was not yet noon when the first edition of the 
Daily News was on the street with the first account 
of the explosion. Many of the enterprising methods 
of news - getting which are now the commonplace 
routine of the business were invented in the office 
of the Chicago Daily News under Melville Stone's 
resourceful command. 

In 1879 he was appointed a member of the Chicago 
Board of Education and served three years. In a score of 
other ways and on every possible occasion he was active 
in the public life of the city. The people knew Melville 
Stone, and counted upon his interest in all that concerned 
their welfare. 

Early in 1888 his health again gave way, and it be- 
came evident that no temporary holiday would restore 
it. The strain of his tireless energy and unremitting 
labor had made inroads that could not be quickly 
made good. At the same time he had acquired out 
of the prosperity of the Daily News what seemed a 
competency; he had no desire to amass great wealth, 
preferring that his children should make their way 
by their own efforts. He sold his interest in the 
paper to Victor Lawson, and went to Europe for some 
two years. 

Nothing could better illustrate the relation between 
Stone and Lawson than the two editorials published on 
the 17th of May, 1888, in the Daily News, embodying 
Stone's valedictory and Lawson's salutatory, and the 
tribute of each to the other. Here they are : 



Upon the issuance of this number of the Daily News I retire from 
its editorship and from all participation in its management. I 
have sold my entire stock interest to my long-time friend and busi- 
ness associate, Mr. Victor F. Lawson, and he now becomes sole 
proprietor, editor, and publisher. 

As it may gratify some measure of curiosity to learn the reason for 
this step, the following facts are made public: 

From the day on which I founded the Daily News — in December, 
1875 — until recently I have been engaged almost without remission 

21 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

in the work incident to the editorial service. How arduous such 
labor is only those who have struggled to found a metropolitan daily- 
newspaper can ever know. Taking the years together, it has im- 
paired my health. A few weeks ago I offered to sell my shares 
in the paper to Mr. Lawson, and, after reflection, he reluctantly 
accepted my terms, and the transfer has been effected. I leave the 
paper in the hands of a gentleman concerning whose good character 
there can be no question — whose purposes are the very best and 
whose judgment and ability I esteem most highly. The public may 
rest assured that under Mr. Lawson's editorial control the earnest 
endeavor of the Daily News will be in the future, as in the past, to 
make for those things which are true and honest and just and pure. 
The editorial staff, admittedly without rival in the West for brill- 
iancy or efficiency, will continue unchanged. 

And so, not without a goodly share of regret because circum- 
stances thus force me to abandon the one ambition of my life and to 
sunder a thousand ties which seem well-nigh unbreakable, but with 
a clear sense of duty to my family and myself, with a sincere ac- 
knowledgment of the great debt of gratitude which I owe the people 
of Chicago and the Northwest for a more than generous support, I 
bid the readers of the Daily News a final farewell. 

Melville E. Stone. 

Chicago, May i6, 1888. 



Life is measured not so much by years as by achievement. To 
have exercised the responsibilities of the editorial conduct of the 
Daily News from its first issue to the present time, and to have seen 
that responsibility steadily widen in its application until it touches 
a daily constituency the largest, with a possible single exception, in 
America, may well fill the measure of one man's ambition, and as 
well discharge one life's duty. In his withdrawal, therefore, from 
the exacting cares of journalism Mr. Stone only claims his well- 
earned right to much-needed rest and recovery of health. And 
yet Mr. Melville E. Stone is too young a man to long face a purpose- 
less future, and that new interests will in proper time engage his 
efficient abilities may not be doubted; but it may well be doubted 
whether any most successful future accomplishment on his part 
can add, except by way of a consistent indorsement, to the reputation 
of the founder of the Daily News. 

The confidence which Mr. Stone so generously expresses touching 
the management which now continues its responsibility, in undivided 
measure, for the conduct of the Daily News shall be at least so far 
assured as sincerity of purpose and faithfulness in endeavor may 
contribute. The Daily News will continue to be an impartial, in- 
dependent American newspaper, whose highest ambition shall be to 

22 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

give its million-a-week constituency all the news, and to tell the 

truth about it. 

Victor F. Lawson. 
Chicago, May 16, 1888. 



THEN followed upward of two years' travel with his 
family in Europe. They made their headquarters 
on the Savoy shore of Lake Geneva, and the two boys, 
Herbert Stuart Stone and Melville Edwin Stone — gen- 
erally known as Melville E. Stone, Jr. — entered a well- 
known preparatory school at Lancy, near by. From this 
place as a base they made tours over a territory as far 
north as the North Cape, as far south as the Cataracts of 
the Nile, and as far east as Nijni Novgorod in Russia. 

In 1890 the underlying energy of Mr. Stone's char- 
acter would brook suppression no longer; he must get 
back to America, to work of some kind. Besides, he felt 
it necessary that his children should be back in the 
American atmosphere and be fitted for life by an American 
education. So the family returned to Chicago; Herbert 
entered Harvard, and Melville, Jr., went to Phillips An- 
dover Academy to complete his preparation for college. 

Mr. Stone found it impossible to enjoy life in idleness 
even among his old friends in Chicago, and he was be- 
coming restless when some of those friends brought about 
the organization of the Globe National Bank, and without 
solicitation or effort on his part proposed that he should be- 
come president of it . He felt that he had had no experience 
to fit him for a bank presidency, but at last agreed to take 
the vice-presidency, if the personnel of the bank were satis- 
factory, and if some kindly gentleman of high standing 
would accept the presidency for the time being on the 
understanding that subsequently, if all went well, they 
should exchange places. This arrangement was carried 
out, and forthwith Mr. Stone found himself deeply im- 
mersed again in all the activities of Chicago business life. 

One of the things that the Daily News had advocated 
during Mr. Stone's editorship was the project of a great 

23 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

drainage canal to connect the Chicago and Illinois rivers. 
At that time, and indeed until the late nineties, the 
sewage of the great city was run into the little river that 
forms the "Y" through the heart of Chicago, and flowed 
thence, a reeking stream of filth, into the clean waters of 
Lake Michigan, from which, at the same time, the city 
drew its supply of water for all purposes. The canal 
project was literally to "make water run uphill," by 
turning the current of the Chicago River the other way, 
so that the water should flow from Lake Michigan out 
through the Chicago River, the proposed drainage canal, 
the Illinois River, and so into the Mississippi. The proj- 
ect was undertaken and was in course of development 
when Mr. Stone became president of the Globe National 
Bank. The Board of Trustees having charge of the drain- 
age canal unanimously elected him treasurer, and he ac- 
cepted on condition that no compensation should be at- 
tached to the position. He marketed the bonds and carried 
on the great financial operation of the enterprise through a 
period of years entirely as a labor of love, an unpaid public 
service the magnitude and importance of which to the 
city of Chicago it would be difficult to exaggerate. 

It was during this period that Mr. Stone served as 
president of the Bankers' Club, of the Citizens' Associa- 
tion, of the Civil Service Reform League, of the famous 
Fellowship Club of Chicago; as vice-president of the 
Union League Club (notwithstanding that he had been 
a "Mugwump" in the campaign of 1884) ; as a member 
of the Board of Governors of the Chicago Club; and 
in various other capacities indicating a high degree both 
of public spirit and of public confidence. 



WE COME now to the beginnings of the fourth 
period of Mr. Stone's career, the period of leader- 
ship of The Associated Press, extending over twenty -five 
years of as busy and exacting life as a man can stand up 
under; the period of service to the whole world. 

24 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

Prior to 1892 there had grown up out of the needs and 
experiences of the important daily newspapers of the 
country, as Mr. Stone himself has related in articles 
published elsewhere in this volume,* a sort of loose con- 
federacy, so to speak, of news-gathering associations 
which had acquired in the public mind the general appel- 
lation of "The Associated Press," although it was made 
up of a number of organizations having differing names : 
The New York Associated Press, composed of the daily 
papers of New York City; the New York State Asso- 
ciated Press, composed of the papers of New York State 
outside of New York City; the Western Associated 
Press, incorporated in Michigan and operating between 
the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains; the Call- 
Union-Bulletin Association, operating in California but 
actually closely controlled by the New York Associated 
Press; the San Francisco Chronicle Organization, a rival 
of the Call-Union-Bulletin service and operating under 
the Western Associated Press; the Philadelphia Asso- 
ciated Press, the Baltimore Associated Press, and the 
New England Associated Press. Subordinate to the 
Western Associated Press there were also the North- 
western Associated Press, representing the smaller news- 
papers in the territory of the Western Associated Press, 
and the Kansas and Missouri Association bearing a like 
relation to it. Then, throughout the South and Far 
West were many individual papers receiving report from 
the New York Associated Press. 

Competing with these organizations there was The 
United Press, in no sense a progenitor of or related his- 
torically to the United Press Associations of the present 
day. It was a close, proprietary concern, serving clients 
throughout the country which had been unable or un- 
willing to connect themselves with any of the groups of 
the Associated Press. There was a fierce competition 
and much bitterness of feeling. 

*See Century Magazine articles on " The Associated Press," page 91, 
et seq., in this volume. 

25 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

In 1892 The United Press succeeded in capturing The 
New York Associated Press. And since that organiza- 
tion of strong metropolitan papers was virtually the 
hub of the system, it captured with it most of the 
tributary organizations and separate newspapers. This 
threw the practically absolute control of the telegraphic 
news service of the United States into the hands of three 
individuals — Mr. William M. Laffan, of New York; 
Mr. John R. Walsh, of Chicago; and Mr. Walter P. 
Phillips, the General Manager of the United Press. The 
menace of this situation was obvious : that the accounts 
of national and world happenings — indeed the entire 
telegraphic contents of the great bulk of the newspapers 
of a great country — should be absolutely under the con- 
trol of three individuals responsible to nobody but them- 
selves represented a condition intolerable in a free 
country. Yet it was a very difficult situation. The 
United Press had in its hands, virtually entire, the great 
news-gathering organization built up through the years; 
the duplication of such an organization would be an 
enormously expensive enterprise. For a .considerable 
time there were attempts to better the condition in a 
way at least outwardly peaceful. Grievous injustices 
and impositions were suffered. But in the minds of high- 
minded, patriotic newspaper owners and editors there 
abided a sleepless impulse to revolt, and to construct, 
somehow, a news-gathering organization which should 
be democratic in control, disinterested in motive, and co- 
operative in method and management. 

The Western Associated Press was too big and too 
virile to be swallowed, and its spirit was incompatible 
with the maintenance of any permanent truce with such 
an institution as The United Press. Moreover, the 
attitude of the managers of the latter was from the 
outset intolerably arrogant and domineering. Western 
men could not sit supine under such conditions. The 
charter of the Western Associated Press was about to 
expire; advantage was taken of that technical fact to 

26 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

organize in its stead (on Dec. 15, 1892) a new corporation, 
called "The Associated Press, Incorporated in Illinois." 
The organizers intended it to be wholly mutual and co- 
operative, but because there existed no law under which 
such an organization could be given legal body, it had 
to be in form a stock corporation. But everything pos- 
sible was done to make it democratic in control. The 
stockholders were all newspaper owners; no member 
could hold more than eight shares of the stock. Stock- 
holding was not a requirement for membership, but in 
fact a very large proportion of the members held from 
one to eight shares of the stock and had a voice in the 
choice of directors. Nor was the geographical distribu- 
tion of the stock limited to the Western territory. After 
eight years of existence, at the final meeting of the 
stockholders, held in September, 1900, votes were cast 
representing leading newspapers in Alabama, California, 
Colorado, Connecticut, Washington (D. C), Florida, 
Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, 
Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, 
Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, North 
Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, 
South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, 
West Virginia, and Wisconsin. At first the Board of 
Directors and executive management were entirely of 
Middle Western men; but by the third year (ending 
February 23, 1895) the personnel had spread out so that 
the executive and directorate represented Chicago, New 
York, Galveston, St. Paul, Philadelphia, Washington, 
Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburg, San Francisco, St. Louis, 
and Buffalo. 

At the same time that in its earlier days The Asso- 
ciated Press, Incorporated in Illinois, was forming to 
contest the field with The United Press, the stronger 
papers in the South organized The Southern Associated 
Press, which for a time sought to maintain peaceful 
alliance and exchange of news with both The United 
Press and the new Associated Press of Illinois. 

27 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Now, long before this, in 1883, Melville E. Stone, then 
representing the Chicago Daily News, had been elected 
a member of the Board of Directors and of the Executive 
Committee of The Western Associated Press, and he had 
continued in that connection until 1887, just before he 
relinquished his interest in the Daily News and retired, 
as he supposed permanently, from the newspaper busi- 
ness. It requires no stretch of imagination, therefore, 
to appreciate the great interest he must have felt in the 
storm gathering before his eyes. He understood every 
aspect and implication of it. In the directorate of The 
Western Associated Press he had been most active. 
So far as I can find, for instance, to no other than he is 
owing the establishment of the first system of leased 
wires ; the idea was his, and the resolution authorizing it, 
introduced by him, is of record in the proceedings of the 
Western Association. To-day every news-gathering as- 
sociation has as its practical cornerstone the principle 
of leased wire circuits. Moreover, Stone is a fighter; 
there never was a battle waging within his sight or 
hearing but that he sniffed the air and longed to get 
into it. But he was banker, busy with the financial 
doings of Chicago and the business management of 
the Drainage Canal. Out of the corner of his eye 
he beheld the impending newspaper war and had his 
own ideas about it; but he was attending to his own 
business. 

So there is nothing surprising about the fact that 
within a few weeks of the incorporation of the new or- 
ganization, or, to be precise, on the 2d of March, 1893, 
the Board of Directors, meeting in Chicago, upon mo- 
tion of Mr. James E. Scripps, of the Detroit Tribune and 
Evening News, adopted without dissent the following 
resolution : 

Resolved, That the Executive Committee be authorized to confer 
with Mr. Melville E. Stone with reference to his engagement as 
General Manager of The Associated Press, and if, in their judgment, 
such engagement be for the true interests of the Association, they 

28 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

have authority to consummate the same at a salary not to exceed 
Twelve Thousand Dollars per annum. 



That very evening the proposal was made to Mr. 
Stone, and on the following day, March 3, at a meeting 
of the Executive Committee, which consisted of Col. 
Frederick Driscoll, of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Charles 
W. Knapp, of the St. Louis Republic, and Victor F. 
Lawson, of the Chicago Daily News, the appointment 
was formally confirmed. Inasmuch, however, as in the 
circumstances then existing, The Associated Press 
could not afford to pay anybody a salary of $12,000 a 
year, the amount was fixed by Mr. Stone at $10,000; 
but he served as General Manager without salary for 
the space of nearly two years, when the arrearage 
was made up. In the meanwhile, with the full 
knowledge and consent of the directors of both in- 
stitutions, he continued to act as President of the 
Globe National Bank. 

His service to The Associated Press began instantly, 
with an achievement of dramatic aspect and signal im- 
portance. On the 6th of March, three days after his 
appointment, with a leave of absence from the Bank, 
he was in his "fighting clothes" and on the way to 
London, to deal to The United Press a body blow, from 
which, in fact, it never recovered. On March 20, 1893, 
he completed with Baron de Reuter in London a con- 
tract for exchange of news service with Reuter 's Tele- 
gram Company, the famous news-gathering agency 
which commanded the strategic center of the European 
news field. This carried with it similar relations with 
the Agence Havas of Paris and the Continental Tele- 
graphen Compagnie (the so-called Wolff Agency) of 
Berlin and all their tributary agencies. The United 
Press was laboring under the comfortable delusion that 
it alone had access to the European service of these 
agencies, and its conduct on the basis of that delusion 
and of the fact that it controlled the field in the eastern 

29 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

part of the United States was of the most insolent and 
overbearing character. 

After a short period of transactions, as it were at the 
sword's point, definite and deadly war broke out. On 
the 25th of August the directors of the Associated Press, 
in a resolution unanimously adopted, recognized the 
truce between the two associations as at an end. Under 
date of September 16 General Manager Phillips of The 
United Press served notice that thereafter his organiza- 
tion would invade the West. Thus began a four years' 
struggle, the like of which the newspaper world never 
saw before or since. Quarter was neither asked nor 
given. The new Associated Press set out to conquer the 
news field of the world ; it refused to make any alliances 
with the minor groups of American newspapers, and 
adopted the policy of accepting members representing 
individual newspapers, co-operating in the exchange of 
news among them, and conducting its business on a 
purely mutual basis, and substituting for irresponsible 
control by and selfish interests of a small coterie the 
censorship, criticism, and esprit de corps of the whole 
body of the membership. 

Day by day, week by week, month by month, the 
individual newspapers dropped away from The United 
Press and from the various organizations allied with it 
and joined The Associated Press. The success of the 
co-operative principle and the increasing efficiency of the 
service appealed to their self-interest, and the new spirit 
appealed to their ethical sense. The process was in- 
exorable and the result a foregone conclusion. At last 
the number of clients of The United Press became so 
few and its revenues so depleted that it flickered out of 
business. On Monday, March 29, 1897, by vote of ten 
of its thirteen directors, the affairs of The United Press 
were put into the hands of its auditor, Frank G. Mason, 
as receiver. 

A clipping from the Hartford, Conn., Evening Post 
of April 7 writes "30 " to the story as it looked to a local 

30 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

paper in New England, a paper which formerly had 
been a client of the moribund concern: 

The Associated Press is now the greatest news-gathering organiza- 
tion in the world. It has won because it deserved to win and has 
survived because of the superiority of its service and methods. 

The United Press is still sending out its service, but by advice 
of its attorney, who says that the assignee has no right to continue 
such service beyond a reasonable length of time, the service will 
be cut off entirely at 2 a.m. to-morrow, April 8. 

It is interesting at this distance in time to contrast 
the spirit of the two associations. In the course of a 
report made by the directors of The Associated Press 
to the stockholders under date of May 8, 1898, occurs 
this statement : 

With the failure of The United Press as a news-gathering and dis- 
tributing agency, on April 8, 1897, came applications for admission 
to membership in The Associated Press from a very large number of 
papers. Many difficult problems were presented by the situation. 
In their solution the Board of Directors was animated by an honest 
and earnest desire to deal with the members of the failed concern 
in a spirit of the broadest liberality, qualified only by due regard for 
the manifest obligations to those who had been loyal, generous, and 
long-suffering members of The Associated Press during the bitter 
contention of the preceding four years. The sharp competition 
between the two rival associations had resulted in heavy losses to 
both sides. Each of the parties to the contest was carrying a sub- 
stantial indebtedness. We had been frequently notified by the man- 
agers of The United Press that if they should finally triumph, the 
members of The Associated Press would be taxed to pay all these 
liabilities, and the conditions of adjustment would be far from 
agreeable to the unfortunate newspapers which should continue 
faithful to our Association up to the hour of its final triumph. None 
of these threats, however, seemed to justify your Board in any 
departure from its purpose to take into membership every eligible 
United Press paper and to adjust its assessment upon a reasonable 
basis, free from any attempt at reprisal or punishment. 

In the spirit thus declared The United Press news- 
papers were in the vast majority of cases admitted to 

31 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

membership in The Associated Press. Only in certain 
instances did contract obligations with members already 
in the individual local field make it impossible. 

The only important news-gathering association left 
in being after this victory was the Scripps-McRae News 
Association; it forthwith expanded its scope to some 
extent to take care of such afternoon papers as were 
unable or unwilling to get service from The Associated 
Press; but it was many years before any competitor 
at all worthy of its steel came forth to do battle with the 
redoubtable organization which had been built up and 
had fought its way to victory, under the leadership of 
Melville E. Stone. 



UPON what now seemed a clear field The Associated 
Press set forth to serve its members and through 
them the people of the Republic. The co-operative 
principle had won its battle. The newspapers at last 
owned and controlled their own great news-gathering 
agency. Just as two or three of them might maintain 
at one place a correspondent serving them jointly with 
a common report over one wire leased for the purpose, 
so a large number of them maintained through this 
organization a large number of correspondents, serving 
them jointly with a common report over a system of 
wires leased for the purpose. No longer were they 
subservient either to a privately owned news-peddling 
agency with which their relations were like those with 
the paper-mills or to a highly centralized concern ab- 
solutely dominated by a small group of individuals. 
The peril of control by any little knot of self-seekers and 
profit-makers had been obliterated in favor of a vast 
and sleepless censorship by the members, each with sub- 
stantially identical rights and interests, and each in his 
own behalf and in behalf of the public, by himself and 
by each employee in his office, on tiptoe to detect 
and denounce any departure from truthfulness and fair 

32 




MELVILLE E, STONE IN 1903 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

dealing, any misuse of the service in the interest of 
any private cause. 

Almost immediately, however, attack began from an- 
other quarter. The very unanimity of the spirit of the 
Association, and the efficiency to which it contributed, 
•laid it open to charges of monopoly. There were 
enmities and bitternesses left over from the great fight 
with The United Press that bore fruit in a new form of 
struggle. The warfare of competition in which The 
Associated Press had been victorious was transmuted 
into a legal warfare in legislatures and courts. Space 
is not available here to recite in detail the events of this 
period. Suffice it to say that in various forms the 
allegation was made that The Associated Press Incor- 
porated in Illinois was a monopoly, and that its prac- 
tices in defense of the sanctity of its report and the 
loyalty of its membership tended to restraint of trade. 
Statutes were enacted in various States to declare it 
a public service corporation and to compel it to serve all 
comers ; there were several important litigations involv- 
ing these and kindred questions. The situation grew 
more and more tense and threatening. And finally, on 
February 19, 1900, there fell a blow which at the time 
seemed fatal. As the event has proved, however, it was 
one of those misfortunes, seemingly irreparable, which 
turn out to have been blessings in disguise. 

This time the foe was of the household. In enforce- 
ment of one of the by-laws of the Association the news 
service of The Associated Press was suspended to the 
Chicago Inter-Ocean (of which, by the way, Melville E. 
Stone thirty years before had been the first managing 
editor), for violation of contract in exchanging news 
service with the New York Sun. The Sun had been one 
of the bulwarks of The United Press, and The Associated 
Press regarded it as antagonistic to its interests; also 
it maintained a competing news service. The Inter - 
Ocean charged The Associated Press with "wickedly and 
unlawfully intending to control the business of buying, 
3 33 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

gathering, and accumulating information and news and 
vending or selling the same, and to create in itself an 
exclusive monopoly or trust in its business." 

In its defense The Associated Press denied that it had 
any such intentions or desires, setting forth the fact 
"that there are more than five hundred persons, cor- 
porations, and associations in the United States engaged 
in the business of gathering and furnishing news to the 
proprietors of newspapers, which have not been declared 
antagonistic to this defendant under its By-Laws, and 
that there are more than six agencies in the United 
States engaged in the business of procuring foreign news 
and of furnishing the same to the proprietors of other 
newspapers for publication, which have not been de- 
clared antagonistic to this defendant under its By-Laws, 
and to any or all of which the said complainant has at all 
times been free to furnish its news, and from whom the 
said complainant has at all times been at liberty to 
receive news." It set forth incidentally some of the 
history of the high-handed methods of The United 
Press which had compelled The Associated Press to 
adopt measures of self -protection "in order that it 
should be rendered impossible for any future antagonist 
or rival in business to extort unwilling tribute from the 
patrons of this defendant." 

The case was tried in the Circuit Court at Chicago and 
a decision was rendered on March 4, 1898, in favor of 
The Associated Press. The decision was affirmed by 
the Appellate Court for the First District of Illinois 
and went thence to the Supreme Court of Illinois, where 
it was reversed and remanded. A bill for an injunction 
and receiver was then filed, but this case, and an action 
for damages begun at the same time, were finally ad- 
justed and dismissed. 

Now, it is interesting and important to note that the 
grounds upon which the Supreme Court of Illinois dealt 
this death-blow to the Illinois corporation of The Asso- 
ciated Press lay in provisions in its charter (adopted, 

34 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

by the way, months before Stone had anything to do 
with the organization) embodying technically exactly 
the thing which Melville Stone and his colleagues never 
had done, did not want to do, and had in fact earnestly 
desired and sought to avoid doing — namely, the erec- 
tion of a public-service corporation engaged in the 
"vending or selling of news." Nevertheless, there it 
stood in black and white in the original certificate of 
incorporation, and the Court put it's ringer on it : 

The object for which it is formed is to buy, gather, and accumulate 
information and news; to vend, supply, distribute, and publish the 
same; to purchase, erect, lease, operate, and sell telegraph and 
telephone lines and other means of transmitting news; to publish 
periodicals; to make and deal in periodicals and other goods, wares, 
and merchandise. 

The Court pointed out that the authority to build and 
operate telegraph and telephone lines (although The 
Associated Press never had done or seriously contem- 
plated doing any such thing) conferred upon it the power 
of eminent domain — i. e., the power to take private 
property for quasi-public purposes; that its business 
partook sufficiently of the nature of a public function to 
render it amenable to public control; in short, that it 
was substantially a public-service corporation and as 
such could not circumscribe the news transactions of its 
membership or refuse its service to any applicant. It 
mattered not that the Supreme Court of the State of 
Missouri had rendered a decision to almost exactly op- 
posite effect on substantially the same presentation of 
facts; The Associated Press was a creature of the law 
of the State of Illinois, and on that subject the Court 
had the last word, and that word was law. The Board 
of Directors proposed to the stockholders changes in 
the By-Laws to comport with the decision; but it was 
evident that the corporation could not go on. 

On May 17, 1900, Melville Stone resigned as General 
Manager and Secretary of The Associated Press Incor- 

35 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

porated in Illinois ; Victor F. Lawson declined re-election 
as President of the Association. Previous to that 
William L. McLean of the Philadelphia Bulletin and 
Frank B. Noyes of the Washington Star had declined re- 
election as Directors. The shareholders were unwilling 
to continue a service in which their interests could not 
be protected; Mr. Stone himself, on the other hand, as 
he said, ''could not consistently go on in the work of 
The Associated Press in defiance of the laws of the 
State of Illinois." 

The prospect looked pretty bleak, but Stone and his 
friends and fellow- warriors decided to try again. They 
took upon themselves cheerily the task of building a new 
structure on a more secure foundation. Meanwhile 
The Associated Press of Illinois went on for several 
months, with an increasing tangle of interests, as 
newspapers hitherto unable to gain membership ap- 
plied for admission and encountered the opposition 
of local competitors already holding contracts for 
exclusive service, and the latter, finding the value of 
their membership injured if not destroyed by the new 
conditions, balked and protested, but could find no 
way lawfully to protect themselves. Finally, at a 
meeting of the shareholders held in Chicago, September 
13, 1900, a resolution was adopted, instructing the 
Board of Directors to take the necessary steps to 
wind up the service and affairs of the corporation, and 
December of that year saw the end of its activities. 



IN THE organization of The Associated Press as it 
stands to-day the utmost pains were taken to avoid 
the pitfalls into which its Illinois namesake had fallen. 
The best legal talent in the country was enlisted in the 
effort to create a body in which the co-operative spirit 
and purpose could live. To this end Melville Stone 
devoted every ounce of his energy and intelligence, and 
with him worked several of those who, like him, had 

36 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

seen the results of their former labors turned to ruin. 
John P. Wilson, leader of the Chicago bar, Swayne & 
Swayne, Delancey Nicoll, John G. Johnson of Phila- 
delphia, Stetson, Jennings & Russell, Henry T. Fay, 
and others, were consulted. Plan after plan was sug- 
gested and abandoned. At last it was determined to 
incorporate under the Membership Corporation Law of 
New York, under which subsisted clubs and other 
co-operative and non-profit-making organizations. On 
May 22, 1900, a certificate of incorporation was filed 
with the Secretary of State at Albany, signed by Stephen 
O'Meara of the Boston Journal, Adolph S. Ochs of the 
New York Times, St. Clair McKelway of the Brooklyn 
Eagle, William L. McLean of the Philadelphia Bulletin, 
Frank B. Noyes of the Washington Star, and Alfred 
H. Belo of the Dallas News. There was a world of hard 
experience imbedded in that document: 

Other owners or representatives of newspapers, from time to 
time, may be elected to membership . . . and no person not so 
elected shall have any right or interest in the corporation or enjoy any 
of the privileges or benefits thereof. 

The objects and purposes for which the said corporation is formed 
are to gather, obtain, and procure by its own instrumentalities, by 
exchange with its members and by other appropriate means, any 
and all kinds of information and intelligence, telegraphic or otherwise, 
for the use and benefit of its members and to furnish and supply 
the same to its members for publication in the newspapers owned 
or represented by them, under and subject to such regulations, con- 
ditions, and limitations as may be prescribed by the By-Laws; and 
the mutual co-operation, benefit, and protection of its members. . . . 

The corporation is not to make a profit nor to make or declare dividends 
and is not to engage in the business of selling intelligence, nor traffic in 
the same. 

No suggestion here of eminent domain, or of the busi- 
ness of buying, vending, or selling news or building and 
operating telegraph or telephone lines! A group of 
newspaper men, however small it might be or however 
large in number it might become, were banded together 
solely io serve each other for their common interest. Their 

37 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

agent was to sell nothing to them or anybody else; 
they were to support it as an integral part of their own 
normal and legitimate machinery and expense of busi- 
ness. There was to be no stock ownership ; it was to be 
a mutual concern, with mutual rights, duties, and obliga- 
tions. The only advantages that could accrue to any 
member over any other lay first in the fact of an initial 
financial contribution to the launching of the organiza- 
tion. The sum of about $125,000 was loaned to the 
Association by certain members, upon bonds secured by 
a first mortgage upon the assets of the Association, the 
amount of bonds to be held by any one person being 
limited to $1,000. Under specific provision of New 
York law, and especially in consideration of a waiver 
of interest on his bonds, the holder was to have at any 
election of directors one vote for each $25 of his hold- 
ings. It has sometimes been claimed that this gives to 
the bondholders a dominating influence in such elections. 
The fact is that upon more than one occasion notice has 
been taken of this possibility, and it has been found that 
the same persons would have been elected had the 
votes upon the bonds been entirely eliminated. The 
other advantage of some of the older members over the 
later comers arose out of the granting of what is known 
as "the right of protest," which conferred upon the 
holder thereof only the power to prevent the election of a 
competitor to membership by the Board of Directors, re- 
quiring that the application must be submitted to the 
whole Association. In former times there was a power 
of absolute veto. None of these rights has been con- 
ferred since the original grants in September, 1900, more 
than seventeen years ago ; many of them have lapsed or 
been extinguished in one way and another, and inas- 
much as it requires under the By-Laws an affirmative 
vote of seven-eighths of all the members of the Associa- 
tion to grant the "right of protest," and inasmuch also 
as the sentiment of the membership and the general 
public temper in these days are increasingly opposed 

38 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

to such special advantages, it is exceedingly unlikely that 
henceforth any new ones will be granted. 

In every real sense the conduct of the affairs of The 
Associated Press has been democratic and co-operative, 
liberal and brotherly. In competition it has been fair and 
considerate; it has not sought to injure or obstruct its 
competitors or any one else in any legitimate effort or 
enterprise. It has no special privileges; it has asked 
none. It leases its wires upon the same terms and 
conditions as those upon which any one else can lease 
them. Frank B. Noyes, who has been President of 
The Associated Press since the organization of the present 
Association in 1900, says on this subject in an article 
which was printed by order of the United States Senate 
in May, 1913 :* 

Away back in the middle of the last century an alliance, offensive 
and defensive, existed between the old New York Associated Press, 
a news-selling organization owned by seven New York papers, and 
the Western Union Telegraph Company under the terms of which 
The New York Associated Press dealt solely with the Western Union 
and the Western Union in turn gave discriminating rates and ad- 
vantages to The New York Associated Press. Although this arrange- 
ment (in the light of to-day a very improper one) was abolished more 
than thirty years ago, many people think it still exists and occasion- 
ally some one arises to fiercely denounce this unholy alliance. 

The form of the corporation has withstood all attacks. 
In various ways its legal integrity and propriety have 
been challenged; even the Attorney-General of the 
United States was asked by the publishers of the New 
York Sun to proceed against it as an injurious monopoly. 
The petition was rejected. Attorney-General Gregory, 
in his opinion rendered March 12, 191 5, remarked that 
even if the kind of service in which The Associated 
Press was engaged were assumed to be in the nature of 

* "The Associated Press — An article relating to the methods of opera- 
tion, organization, and collection and distribution of news matter by 
The Associated Press " ; by Frank B. Noyes, President of The Associated 
Press. Sixty-third Congress, 1st Session; Senate Document No. 27. 

39 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

interstate commerce — "a question not free from doubt," 
he said — he could see no violation of the Anti-Trust 
Act in a group of newspapers forming an association to 
collect and distribute news for their common benefit; 
" provided that no attempt was made to prevent the 
members from purchasing or otherwise obtaining news 
from rival agencies." Such an association might per- 
haps develop into an unlawful monopoly; but the facts 
adduced by the complainant had not shown that any 
such thing had happened in the case of The Associated 
Press. He recommended the abrogation of a By-Law 
which did reserve to the Board of Directors author- 
ity to forbid the purchase of news from other associa- 
tions — an authority which never had been exercised — 
and that course has since been taken. Incidentally it 
may be observed that the New York Sun did not at that 
time apply for membership in The Associated Press, but 
demanded the sale of news to it — a thing which under 
its charter the Association had no right to do. Since 
then, in 191 6, by merger with and extinction of the 
New York Press, the Sun has acquired membership in 
the Association. 

One of the best proofs that it is not a monopoly lies 
in the fact of the upgrowth of increasingly vigorous com- 
petition. Very soon after the demise of the old United 
Press there was formed in the eastern territory an or- 
ganization known as The Publishers' Press, operating in 
affiliation with the Scripps-McRae service in the West, 
and, like it, confining itself at first to the afternoon field. 
In 1 90 1 it began to add morning newspapers to its 
clientele, and its service was of an efficient and compre- 
hensive character. In the summer of 1906 the Scripps- 
McRae interests got control of The Publishers' Press, 
gave it new vigor and widened scope, and a year later 
launched a new concern, called "The United Press Asso- 
ciations," and composed of The Publishers' Press, The 
Scripps-McRae News Association, and The Scripps 
News Association. It is unlike The Associated Press 

40 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

in being a stock company organized for profit, and en- 
gaged in the sale of news. Its service is to afternoon 
and Sunday morning papers. It is conducted with 
much efficiency, and its competition has given The 
Associated Press on many occasions good reason to ' ' sit 
up and take notice." There have been also as more or 
less serious competitors the now defunct Laffan News 
Bureau, conducted by the New York Sun up to the 
time of its entrance into membership in The Associated 
Press, and the organization under control of William 
Randolph Hearst, known as The International News 
Service (of which more anon). 



ON THE 19th of September, 1900, the appointment 
of Melville E. Stone as General Manager of The 
Associated Press — the New York corporation — was 
formally confirmed by the Board of Directors. The 
new organization bought out certain of the assets of the 
old Illinois corporation and it re-employed virtually all 
of the men in the old organization. In spite of the 
tremendous legal upheaval that had taken place and the 
fact that the new corporation was absolutely distinct 
and in vital respects different from the old, so far as the 
newspaper-reading public was concerned the efficient 
news service developed under Mr. Stone's direction dur- 
ing the preceding seven years had suffered no break. 
There was actually little loss of momentum. To all in- 
tents and purposes his has been an unbroken service 
since 1893 ; during that time Melville Stone, in a manner 
of speaking, has been The Associated Press. On the 
evening of the 2d of March, 1893, when Colonel Driscoll 
and Charles W. Knapp called upon him to offer the 
General Managership of the organization, he laid down 
to them as conditions prerequisite to his acceptance the 
principles which have been in force in The Associated 
Press from that day to this — the principles of co-opera- 
tive service, mutual interchange and responsibility, free 

41 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

criticism and censorship by the members and recognition 
by them of their ownership of the organization; open 
and aboveboard proceedings, democratic control and 
management. But it has been the boast of Melville 
Stone that he has never taken part or sought to exercise 
influence in the choice of any member of the Board of 
Directors. That business has been an absolutely demo- 
cratic affair of the whole membership. 



BUT there was another fight to be fought. That 
battle is on now, and in it every newspaper has an 
interest. It is the struggle to establish the principle of 
Property in News. Having established the organiza- 
tion of a co-operative enterprise in which newspapers 
exchange the fruits of their local efforts and maintain 
jointly a world-wide service for their common benefit, 
it has become necessary to protect the results of that 
service from theft. 

In another article in this volume * Judge Peter S. 
Grosscup states the question involved and tells the 
story of Melville Stone's part in the battle. The sub- 
jects of news are open to all observers. The facts about 
a happening of public interest cannot be patented or 
copyrighted; they are open to any inquirer. But shall 
there be no protection for those who by their own fore- 
sight and enterprise and their own expenditure of effort 
and money have provided for prompt and adequate re- 
port of the happening, including, perhaps, enormous 
cable and telegraph tolls ? One may copyright the par- 
ticular literary form in which the story is told, but is 
there no protection for the vigilance, labor, and ex- 
penditure underlying the story, from those who, though 
they have had no part in the enterprise, the labor, or the 
expenditure, would steal and sell the fruits of them? 
Frequently there is no literary form to speak of ; the news 
item may be stated in three or four words — "The king 

* See "Property in News," page 66, et seq. 
42 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

died at noon," "Harvard wins," "Revolution in Rus- 
sia," or what not — the copyright process affords no 
redress for the theft of such as this. Judge Grosscup 
in 1 90 1 wrote the opinion of the United States District 
Court of Appeals in the case of Naiional News Telegraph 
Co. vs. Western Union Telegraph Co., in which, although 
it was not strictly speaking a newspaper case, this ques- 
tion was directly dealt with. In this instance, informa- 
tion was stolen from a "ticker" and sold at a reduced 
rate in competition with the Western Union, which had 
gathered the news for its owns ervice. Judge Grosscup 
said, among other things: 

We are of the opinion that the printed tape would not be copyright - 
able. ... In no accurate view can appellee be said to be Publisher 
or Author. Its place, in the classification of the law, is that of a 
carrier of news; the contents of the tape being an implement only, 
in the hands of such carrier, in its engagement for quick transmission. 
This is Service, not Authorship. ... Is service like this to be out- 
lawed? Is the enterprise of the great news agencies, or the in- 
dependent enterprise of the great newspapers, or of the great tele- 
graph and cable lines, to be denied appeal to the courts, against the 
inroads of the parasite, for no other reason than that the law, fash- 
ioned hitherto to fit the relations of authors and the public, cannot 
be made to fit the relations of the public and this dissimilar class of 
servants? 

Judge Grosscup answered his question emphatically 
in the negative, and the Court forbade the stealing. 

This matter had for many years been a subject of 
special concern to Melville Stone. Long before he 
had ; devised an ingenious arrangement for the copy- 
right of the special despatches of the Daily News; 
but he was well aware that the copyright law was 
inadequate to reach cases where only the substantial 
facts were stolen, the despatch containing them being 
rewritten into perhaps unrecognizable form. In a 
letter printed elsewhere* he states his own view of 
the matter: 

* See letter to Hon. F. W. Lehmann, page 73 of this volume. 

43 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

We receive an important message at large cost from, say, China, 
and the instant it is printed in one of our New York papers it is 
seized and by the rapid processes of telegraphy is sent broadcast 
over the land by rival associations. As their news thus costs them 
little, or frequently nothing, they are able to take members from us 
and serve them with our own news cheaper than we ourselves can do 
it. . . . As a rule our rivals rewrite our telegrams. . . . But ... I 
remember a Michigan case where a man made a map of Allegan 
County. Another man copied it, and Judge Cooley, I think it was, 
granted an injunction, holding that B might make his own survey 
of the county and issue a map identical with A's, but that he could 
not copy A's and enjoy without original labor or enterprise the fruit 
of A's effort. 



This is the question at issue in Associated Press vs. 
International News Service, pending in the Supreme 
Court of the United States. It was conclusively shown 
in these proceedings that the International News Service 
(better known as the Hearst Service) had regularly 
maintained the practice, amounting to a paid system, 
not only of appropriating and rewriting despatches ap- 
pearing in early editions of Associated Press papers and 
distributing them as its own, but of subsidizing em- 
ployees of such papers to give its agents access to and to 
disclose to them in advance of publication matter con- 
tained in Associated Press despatches. The United 
States District Court in the Southern District of New 
York, by Judge Augustus N. Hand, sustained the com- 
plaint of The Associated Press in respect of the practice 
of suborning any of its agents or those of any of its 
members, and issued an injunction forbidding it; but 
declined to forbid by preliminary injunction the taking 
of news from early editions of Associated Press papers, 
passing that question on to the Circuit Court of Appeals 
with the remark that he was personally satisfied that the 
practice complained of amounted to "unfair trade." 

When the case came up on appeal by both parties to 
the United States Court of Appeals The Associated Press 
was completely victorious. The Court by injunction 
forbade all the practices complained of, including that 

44 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

of appropriating and purveying, in competition with 
The Associated Press, news or despatches from either 
the bulletin-boards or the early editions of papers re- 
ceiving the report of The Associated Press. The case on 
appeal of the International News Service to the Supreme 
Court of the United States has not yet been argued. 



IN the development and efficiency of the service 
under the command and guidance of Melville E. 
Stone there has been no break for a quarter of a century. 
Those who have followed the story thus far appreciate 
that, prior to the organization in November, 1892, of 
1 ' The Associated Press Incorporated in Illinois, ' ' the name 
stood for a loosely affiliated group of organizations scat- 
tered all over the country, some of which did not even 
have in their titles the words "Associated Press" at all. 
The New York Associated Press, a privately owned con- 
cern representing a very few newspapers in New York 
City, by reason of its strategic position and its relation 
with the foreign news agencies, dominated the whole 
telegraphic news service of the country. Therefore the 
successful installation of The Associated Press as a 
national organization marked an era of immense im- 
portance in the history of American journalism. From 
the institution of that enterprise Melville Stone has been 
its guiding spirit, its fighting general. Beginning with 
his coup in London on the 20th of March, 1893, a bare 
fortnight after his appointment as General Manager, 
in securing the contracts with Reuter and the affiliated 
European agencies, he has built up a wonderful foreign 
service. At the outset it was through these agencies 
that The Associated Press gathered the news of Europe, 
collecting at London the budget of despatches for 
America from Europe and the Orient. But it was soon 
realized that these concerns did not have the American 
point of view ; that the English and French and German 
and other foreign news was or might be impressed with 

45 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

color to suit national or governmental interests or ideas. 
So Mr. Stone proceeded to establish the remarkable 
chain of Associated Press bureaus, manned almost en- 
tirely by Americans, at London, Paris, Rome, St. Peters- 
burg, Berlin, Vienna, Tokio, Pekin, Mexico City, and 
Havana ; supplemented by a force of scores of individual 
correspondents at strategic points all over the known 
world. We have the story vividly in his own words in 
the Century articles, published in 1905, and included in 
this volume.* 

The system operates to-day substantially as it did 
then. A fair picture of the world's doings in peace and 
war from day to day is laid before us in the morning and 
evening papers served by The Associated Press. Even 
to very small newspapers in the nooks and corners of the 
country the cream of the great budget of news is sent in 
so-called ''pony" reports condensed even to so small a 
compass as five hundred words a day, by telegraph or 
telephone from the various centers of distribution. 
This great system has been built up on the foundations 
of the older methods, during twenty-five years of storm 
and stress, under the personal influence and direction of 
one of the great organizing geniuses of our time, a true 
Captain of Industry in the best sense of the term. 



ELSEWHERE in this volume f the men who perhaps 
have known Melville Stone the best — Victor F. 
Lawson, his partner and successor in the ownership of 
the Chicago Daily News, and one-time President of 
The Associated Press Incorporated in Illinois; and 
Frank B. Noyes, who has been President of the present 
Associated Press from its beginning seventeen years ago, 
pay their tribute to Melville E. Stone, the man. Active 
as he has been in the stressful life of the world, I am sure 
that it is as a friend, a companion, a royal fellow, that 
most men think of him who have known him well. In 
* Beginning on page 91. t See pages i, 57, et seq. 

46 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

the same spirit he thinks of them. The men in "the 
Service" who have called him "The Old Man" since 
long before there was a gray hair in his head call him 
that and always did with a tone of affection that no 
printed words can convey. On many a battle-field of 
newspaper competition — political conventions, great ac- 
cidents and calamities, election nights, those times of 
Big Stories, when hours are forgotten and sleep and food 
neglected — the Chief has been on the job with the rest 
of the workers, reporters, editors, operators; planning 
just a little, and sometimes a good deal, ahead of the 
game; ingenious, resourceful, cool, keeping head and 
temper amid utmost excitement — a true leader. His 
poise lasted through. And in the intervals "between 
the innings," or after the strain was off, he was always 
fellow-worker with the rest, tentmate, so to speak, 
and chum ; never overbearing nor superior in manner ; 
human, approachable, brother-in-arms with every other 
man on the job, whatever his rank or status. The 
veterans of the service to him are every one "Tom," 
or "Charlie," or "Jack," or "Fat," or whatever af- 
fectionate nickname the "boys" with whom he works 
may have given to each. It is a kind of moral promo- 
tion that comes to one at the hands of "The Old Man" 
on that day when suddenly he ceases to be "Smith" and 
becomes "Billy"! 

Melville Stone never has had the "sense of money- 
making." He was prosperous and successful financially 
in the conduct of the Daily News, but that was because 
the kind of newspaper that he was bent upon making 
was the kind of newspaper the people wanted to support. 
He would have insisted on making that kind of news- 
paper, because he believed it was the kind of news- 
paper that ought to be made, even if it had not been 
profitable. There is a large class of persons who cannot 
understand how a man, constantly in possession of in- 
formation of the utmost importance, for advance or 
exclusive possession of which they themselves would be 

47 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

glad to pay handsomely, or which they themselves cer- 
tainly would peddle surreptitiously for their own profit 
if they had access to it, could fail to avail himself of such 
an opportunity. They cannot understand how one in 
command of an engine of investigation and publicity 
reaching into every corner of the civilized world could 
neglect to utilize that power to garner profit in the form 
of tidings of commercial value for himself and his 
friends. It is not unnatural, then, that there should be 
from time to time epidemics of gossip spread sometimes 
maliciously by liars — especially liars who have found 
that they cannot use The Associated Press for their own 
purposes — and sometimes in good faith by well-intending 
but ill-informed persons, to the effect that the manage- 
ment of The Associated Press is conducting the service 
corruptly in aid or to the injury of this, that, or the 
other cause or person. Occasionally, one of the origina- 
tors or purveyors of this sort of thing, in absence of con- 
crete evidence or allegation, has to content himself with 
the suggestion that "it is inconceivable that the great 
business interests would overlook or fail to get control 
of this mighty engine of publicity." 

The thing that these people always have failed to ap- 
preciate is the fact that even if the General Manager of 
The Associated Press were corrupt, and did desire and 
attempt to use the service for some improper purpose, 
he couldn't "get away with it." The conduct of the 
business is as open as Town Meeting. The report is 
sent over long circuits at either end of which and all 
along the line sit operators and editors receiving it 
simultaneously, whose special duty it is to scrutinize it. 
A piece of "press-agenting" sent by any office along the 
line is certain to be pounced upon by somebody, if not 
by everybody. Every move is public before the eyes 
of a host of trained men highly sophisticated and ultra- 
suspicious, who often see the grinding of an ax for 
somebody even when it isn't there, and often "kill" a 
perfectly innocent news item "just on suspicion." Any- 

48 







*****Sfo 



<>*'" 




"M. E. S." 

(Enlarged from a snapshot taken at Long Branch in the summer of 1917) 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

thing in the nature of instructions from headquarters 
to use or suppress any despatch on any basis other than 
that of news merits would be received with astonishment 
and incredulity if not with derision; the scandal could 
not be kept secret. Besides that, it is of the very essence 
and genius of the whole institution that every item is 
subject to the jealous vigilance of the newspaper owners 
and editors who are the proprietors of The Associated 
Press. Republicans, Democrats, Catholics, Protestants, 
Radicals, Conservatives, men who favor Capital and 
men who favor Labor, men who favor Prohibition and 
Woman Suffrage and men to whom these things are 
" fighting words," receive the report and print it in their 
newspapers. They are on edge at all times to detect the 
slightest flavor of bias against their side. The spirit 
of the thing as understood by the rank and file of the 
service is pretty well expressed in this excerpt from a 
speech made by an incoming chief of the bureau to the 
staff of the Washington office: 

If anybody should ever come to you and ask for the publication 
or the suppression of anything whatever on the ground of some 
alleged acquaintance or relationship with me, or with Mr. Stone, 
or with any official or person supposed to be influential in The 
Associated Press, throw him out of the window, and report the case 
to the coroner. Handle each matter on the basis of common sense 
and news merits, and you cannot go far wrong. I have had some 
important news assignments in my time; I have had charge of the 
report at several important points; but I have yet to have my first 
experience of instructions or even intimation from any officer of 
The Associated Press that I should use or suppress or color any story, 
in any respect whatever, other than upon the news merits in each 
case. Those of you who have been any length of time in the service 
know what a commonplace it is to receive instructions and criticisms 
of quite the other sort — how earnest and even vituperative is the 
insistence upon unbiased handling of any matter whatsoever. 

The commonest form of accusation comes in time of 
great partisan excitement, when the Democrats charge 
The Associated Press with unduly favoring the Repub- 
licans, and vice versa. More than once the General 
4 49 



"M. E. S.." — HIS BOOK 

Manager has had the exquisite joy of sending to some 
Republican editor the letter of a Democrat, and to the 
Democrat the letter of the Republican, received in the 
same mail, complaining simultaneously on exactly op- 
posite grounds of the alleged partisan character of the 
same despatch! 

In a speech delivered at Chautauqua * a few years 
ago Mr. Stone spoke of these matters. He told how, 
for example, "in the heat of the contest before the meet- 
ing of the Baltimore Convention, Speaker Clark ac- 
cused The Associated Press of bias in favor of Governor 
Wilson. At the same moment the Wilson people were 
charging in their literature that the organization leaned 
toward Clark. Each of the candidates was sure he was 
'getting the worst of it.' The facts were made plain 
to all, and it was quite evident that none had any just 
cause for grievance; that The Associated Press service, 
however it differed from the exaggerated claims of the 
campaign managers, and however unpalatable, therefore, 
it frequently was, was nevertheless absolutely truthful." 
And Mr. Stone took pains to add : 

"Then Mr. Clark promptly and manfully wrote a 
letter in which he said : ' I believe I ought to withdraw 
the charges which I preferred in anger. I have con- 
cluded that I had no just cause of complaint. ' ' 

Here are two twenty-year-old letters written to Mr. 
Stone after the terribly bitter Presidential campaign of 
1896. Each is in the personal handwriting of the author : 

Canton, Ohio, Nov. 5th, i8g6. 

My Dear Sir, — It gives me pleasure to acknowledge (and I 

sincerely thank you for) the enterprise displayed by your great 

Association in reporting and transmitting so fully the news from 

Canton during the campaign just closed. I desire to thank you 

especially for the faithful and efficient services of Mr. George B. 

Frease, whom you detailed to take charge of this arduous and 

exacting work. 

Yours very truly, 

W. McKlNLEY. 
* "The A. P. and Its Maligners," page 202 in this volume. 
50 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

Lincoln, Neb., Nov. 6, i8g6. 
My Dear Sir, — Now that the campaign is over I desire to thank 
you for the fairness and thoroughness with which you have reported 
my speeches and also to express my appreciation of the correspondents 
whom you have detailed to travel with our party. 

Yours truly, 

W. J. Bryan. 

In this connection it is timely to mention another sub- 
ject upon which the absolute fairness of The Associated 
Press has been conspicuous. To do it one must invade 
a privacy of grief and touch it with tender hand. The 
two sons, in whose life and success Melville Stone in- 
vested all he was and all he had, are gone. The elder, 
Herbert Stuart Stone, went down with the Lusiiania. 
There lies before me a letter from Melville Stone, dated 
May ii, 191 5, written to me in answer to a note of 
sympathy. We must not miss the light it throws upon 
his character ; at the risk of breaking confidence, I quote : 

Noticing the last sentence in the German reply respecting the 
Lusitania, let me say a word to you personally. The last paragraph 
reads: 

"The German Government despite its heartfelt sympathy for the 
loss of American lives cannot but regret that Americans felt more 
inclined to trust English promises rather than pay attention to 
warning from the German side." 

The answer which seems to me is perfectly clear is the answer I 
made to my own son the morning the Lusitania sailed. The German 
notices were not warnings — they were threats. They did not warn 
as to acts of anybody else, but threatened as to some act of their own, 
and I said to Herbert that, while they might be provoked into such 
a threat with a view to deterring people from sailing, I was sure, 
from my acquaintance with the Germans, that they were at least 
civilized and that no one born of a decent mother would participate 
in the destruction of the Lusitania in the way threatened. It was 
not that one doubted their warning, but that everybody doubted 
that a civilized nation, however much they threatened, would carry 
into execution so horrible an undertaking. 

If there is a man in America who would have had 
excuse to use every means at his command in reprisal 

51 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

upon the brutal German autocracy for a deed which 
struck him personally to his heart of hearts, it is Mel- 
ville Stone. Who could have blamed him had he in- 
structed his subordinates throughout the service, es- 
pecially after the declaration of war between his own 
country and Germany, that they need not be soft- 
handed or over-scrupulous in dealing with the enemy? 
But Melville Stone is not that kind of a man. The 
Associated Press is not that kind of an institution. 
At a certain meeting of German citizens in Chicago 
several months after the United States entered the war 
on its own account, one German speaker bitterly de- 
nounced The Associated Press as having distorted the 
news in favor of the Allies. He had no support in his 
attack; a German editor rose up in his place and said 
he would hear no more of such talk. He himself was a 
German, he said, but he was a member of The Asso- 
ciated Press and as such one of its proprietors, and he 
wanted to go on record with the fact that at the hands 
of The Associated Press Germany from the beginning 
had had a square deal ! 



SUCH a man has made The Associated Press. He 
has had able assistance, not only from the news- 
paper owners and editors who surrounded him with their 
deep conviction as to what the spirit and method of the 
Association must be, but from the rank and file of the 
remarkable news-gathering organization that he has 
brought together. Taking over to a great extent the 
personnel of the force, scattered all over the country, 
which had served in the older days the various organiza- 
tions out of which The Associated Press was developed, 
he has weeded out and filled vacancies and enlarged 
the scope and latitude of the service. With that en- 
largement has come a steady gain in the literary quality 
and human interest of the despatches. Many of them 

52 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

are literature, in the finest significance of the term. 
There was a day, long years ago, when the activities of 
the correspondents and editors of The Associated Press 
were to a considerable extent confined to the gathering 
and transmission of material found in proofs obtained 
from local newspaper offices. Even then there were 
among them not a few writers of originality, force, and 
vividness, just as there are now skilled writers who can 
telegraph their own stories without a "break" over a 
thousand miles of wire. And every live operator in the 
service is on tiptoe to see that the news in his territory 
gets to the wire not only quickly but in good style. Not 
a few men in the leading ranks of American literature 
have served their day with The Associated Press. Many 
of the best known special correspondents of individual 
newspapers at Washington and elsewhere are graduates 
of the service. But there remains always the numerous 
body of high-grade news- writers, content to remain 
unknown by name to the great newspaper-reading public 
which reads and trusts their despatches from the far-flung 
news-front; traveling thousands of miles by land and 
sea, often in deprivation and danger; doing their work 
for the love of it with conscience and highest skill; 
proud of the service and of the man who leads it. 

At the center of the system continuously for twenty- 
five years, with infrequent vacations and trips abroad, 
has stood the magnetic, inspiring figure of Melville Stone 
himself, unfailingly resourceful, highly constructive, the 
embodiment of energy and executive power. Yet noth- 
ing could be further from the truth than to represent 
him as a cold, detached, callous observer of the world's 
affairs, without sensibilities or compassion engrossed in 
the machinery of distributing the news of men's ac- 
tivities. True, in such a business one does acquire a 
certain habit of unexcitement, of ability to remember 
amid the tensity or the turmoil of thrilling occasions 
the quiet largeness of human progress, the vast perspec- 
tive of history, and the immensity of the future. This 

53 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

is particularly true of this man. He keeps himself 
amazingly free of prejudice; he does not stampede to 
this side or that. His sense of proportion abides. 
Once on an occasion of great intensity he told an 
excited young reporter to "hold the story down to a 
thousand words." 

"But it can't be told in a thousand words," cried 
the youth. "This is about the biggest thing that 
ever — " 

• "My son," interposed "The Old Man," with his quiz- 
zical smile, "don't you remember that the Official 
Account of the Creation of the Universe is told in six 
hundred words?" 

It should be added that Stone to this day repeats with 
keen relish the lad's retort: 

"Well, that may be; but it must leave out a lot of the 
details!" 

With all his sanity of poise, all his realization that 
the Greatest Happening of any day dwindles against the 
background of history, Stone is intensely interested in 
what goes on before him. He is a man of deep convic- 
tions and is far from regarding himself as detached from 
the interests of his fellow-men. He thinks of things in 
world terms, and of The Associated Press as in some sort 
an international institution; but more than once he has 
rendered patriotic service to his country in ways that 
cannot be told now; but they leave no doubt of his 
sterling American patriotism. He has been close to the 
inner councils in many great affairs; men of great re- 
sponsibility and power have sought and yielded to his 
strong judgment in national emergencies. It is of his 
nature to desire to be, and of the nature of his task to 
set him, in the midst of great doings. But The Asso- 
ciated Press is his first and last affection, and its in- 
tegrity and disinterestedness his chief concern. 

The men in the service think of him not so much in his 
capacity of able executive, taskmaster keeping them at 
concert pitch of efficiency, as in that of a big-hearted, 

54 



MELVILLE E. STONE 

brotherly man whom they want to please because they 
love him. Not a man of them all but knows he can go 
to "The Old Man" at any time of personal trouble or 
perplexity and get quick sympathy and the best that his 
judgment can offer of counsel or his hand render of 
service. Not a man but knows that his appeal to the 
Chief from any substantial injustice will get a fair hear- 
ing and redress. Nay, more than that ; there have been 
times not a few when the hand of punishment for 
serious wrong-doing was withheld because of Melville 
Stone's incurable habit of seeing in the offender the 
fellow-man. 

"I don't seem to get any joy," he said to me once, 
"out of seeing my fellow-humans — even pretty wicked 
ones — in jail." 

One touches lightly in a narrative like this upon the 
subjects nearest the heart of a man; but an under- 
standing Qf Melville Stone is impossible without re- 
membering that the death of Herbert Stone in the 
cruel destruction of the Lusiiania and that of Melville 
Stone, Jr., in this very year, after a lingering illness of 
tuberculosis, have bereft a family of its sons. Remains 
of his children only the daughter, who has given her 
life to the care of her mother, and for many months 
past taken on that of her brother, too. Elizabeth 
Creighton Stone, light of that broken circle, stays at 
her mother's side, but has found time, too, since the 
beginning of her country's part in the war, to take full 
training and gain her certificate as a Red Cross nurse. 
She serves as a volunteer in the hospital at Pasadena, 
reincarnating the spirit in which, so many years ago, 
her father gave himself to the relief of those who suffered 
in the Great Fire of 1871. 

Though the limitations of early poverty denied him 
extensive formal education, Stone has an astonishing fund 
of information; his reading has been omnivorous and 
universal in scope, and to that has been added an 
intimate and discriminating knowledge of affairs and 

55 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

personal acquaintance with men of power and influence 
in every corner of the earth. He has met as equals the 
leaders of business and industry, statecraft and labor and 
education; but he will sit down with the humblest and 
least learned and give him the best his mind affords. 
He has "walked with Kings, nor lost the common 
touch. " Struck to the heart by "slings and arrows 
of outrageous fortune," he has stood it man-fashion 
nor allowed himself to be embittered. He has come 
through seventy years of more than ordinarily active 
and eventful life without being hardened of heart or 
over- wearied; meeting storm and stress, duty and re- 
sponsibility, disappointment, suffering, and sorrow, with 
self-reliant composure, manful courage, and cheery 
spirit. In the last quarter-century of it — allowing all 
you please for the initiative, the fidelity, and the self- 
sacrificing labor of the loyal and brotherly band of men 
who have been his colleagues — to Melville E. Stone 
more than to any other one man is due the building-up 
and continuing inspiration of The Associated Press, an 
institution of the highest usefulness ; democratic and co- 
operative in spirit and method; of incalculable value in 
the daily life of mankind, not only in America, but 
throughout the world. 



MELVILLE E. STONE AS I HAVE 

KNOWN HIM 

A PERSONAL TRIBUTE 

By Frank B. Noyes 
President of The Associated Press 

TOO often we wait until a man has passed away 
before we say the things that are always in our 
hearts concerning him, and so the opportunity of re- 
cording, even haltingly, as I must, the regard and deep 
affection for Melville E. Stone that the long years of 
close association have brought to me is peculiarly 
welcome, as the present year of his service to the cause 
he has labored for finds him serving as greatly as the first. 



When, in 1893, Western newspaper men, headed by 
Victor F. Lawson, resolved to make their fight for a press 
service that should belong to its newspaper members 
and be controlled by them and by them alone; that 
should be co-operative and non-profiting-making, they 
turned to Melville E. Stone, not then engaged in active 
newspaper work, and laid on him the heavy burden of 
leading in this battle for a principle. 

In all the world, in my belief, there was no man so 
fitted for this great duty as the man then selected. 

It is not my function to attempt to tell the epic story 
of the giant conflict between the organization then 
formed, founded on the belief that the safety of the 
press and of the people required that the news service 
of the American newspapers should be controlled by the 

57 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

newspapers, and that other organization, then dominant, 
which had for its purpose only the' making of profits. 
That struggle ended in the complete triumph of the 
co-operative principle, with The Associated Press ad- 
mittedly the greatest news gathering and distributing 
organization in the world. Nor am I to tell of his in- 
sistent fight through years for the principle of Property 
Right in News — for the right of the news-gatherer to 
the fruit of his labor. The records of these endeavors 
\^ and many others are written elsewhere in this volume. 

My acquaintance with Stone began in 1893, some time 
before The Associated Press, of which he was General 
Manager, began actually to function. Early in 1894 I 
became a director and member of the Executive Com- 
mittee of the organization, and from that day to this 
have been in intimate touch with him, either in the 
Illinois organization or in the present New York organi- 
zation that was formed later. 

First let me speak of his immense services to the news- 
papers of this country, regardless of whether or not 
they are represented in the membership of The Asso- 
ciated Press. Melville E. Stone came into the fight 
for a news service that would be unsubservient to private 
interests, with a full sympathy for its object and an 
absolute belief that such a service was vital to an 
honorable American press. 

He was extraordinarily equipped for the part he was 
to play, both in the war with the opposition and in the 
constructive work of establishing, maintaining, and con- 
stantly developing a great world-wide news service. He 
was a tactician of the highest order, fertile of resource, 
ready to meet any emergency, perceiving unerringly the 
weak spot in the enemy line and deadly in his blows on 
that line, though in this war the blow took the form of 
persuasion of the enemy and the victory that of a new 
recruit to the cause of an unfettered press. 

I would not be just to Stone nor to others if I gave 
the impression that he fought alone. Those of us who 

58 



STONE AS I HAVE KNOWN HIM 

were comrades in that struggle know and appreciate the 
mighty part taken by Victor F. Lawson, who staked his 
all that right as he saw it should triumph. These 
two men worked untiringly for the great end they 
sought, backed by the most loyal following that men 
ever had. 

It is one thing, however, to win a fight for a principle 
and altogether another thing to put that principle into 
working practice. And this is where Stone's genius 
came into full play. His range of knowledge; his 
acquaintance with men of all stations of life and of all 
countries; his understanding of conditions throughout 
the world and his ability to call into instant service this 
knowledge, this acquaintance, and this understanding 
are simply marvelous. Under his direction the news 
arms of The Associated Press have year by year reached 
out until now the whole globe contributes to its daily 
story of world happenings. 

The men engaged in this work throughout the world 
have become saturated with his high ideals for the 
service, his determination that it should be truthful, 
should be impartial, should not be tainted with bias or 
propaganda. 

The Boards of Directors of both the Illinois and the 
New York organizations have been made up of strong 
men, but I have never found in all the changing member- 
ship anything but steadfast devotion to the highest 
ideals, and this I attribute to the standards set in the 
early days by both Stone and Lawson. 

I am sure that every man still living who has served 
on these Boards will bear me out when I assert that 
every one of us is wiser and more hopeful of human 
nature by reason of our association with this work and 
these men and has come to understand the spirit of 
fairness and unselfishness that has guided the Boards' 
activities. 

I would not be understood as indicating that there 
have been no differences of opinion — no meeting of the 

59 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Board has ever been held, I think, without such dif- 
ferences — but the differences have been as to what was 
the right thing to do and not such as breed distrust as to 
motives. 

In this respect I can speak with intimate knowledge 
of Stone's characteristics. For eighteen years I have 
served as President of the organization formed in 1900, 
and during those eighteen years Stone has been General 
Manager and in charge of the news service. During this 
time we have differed widely on a thousand questions, 
but always the difference has been one of judgment, 
never of a nature that left in my mind misgivings as to 
his intention to do the right thing as he saw the right, 
and I only hope that he has the same feeling concern- 
ing me. 

Our working relationship during these years has been 
a very wonderful thing to me. His patience and toler- 
ance of an abruptly differing view and his unreserved 
acceptance of a decision by the Board of Directors ad- 
verse to his own point of view mark a mind disciplined 
to an amazing degree, when the masterful nature of the 
man is considered, and an underlying kindness and 
charity of spirit that come to few of us. 

In his social relationship Stone has great charm. 
With an enormous fund of information is also a marked 
ability to give out that information. His wit is very 
keen and he is one of the best conversationalists and 
raconteurs of our time. While not an orator he is a most 
interesting speaker and is one of the best after-dinner 
talkers I have ever heard. 

I suppose that every man who amounts to anything 
has enemies, and he has a select assortment ; but it seems 
to me that more people throughout the world regard 
Stone as a friend than any one else that I know of. 

It seems to be almost a law of nature that with him 
an acquaintance should be a friend. 

As one of those whose relationship is more than that 
of "acquaintance friend" it is difficult for me to speak. 

60 



STONE AS I HAVE KNOWN HIM 

During the long years we have worked together there has 
grown up what has been to me, and I hope and think to 
him, a very tender and beautiful friendship. We have 
been together in days of trial and days of triumph, in 
days of heavy sorrow and those of radiant gladness, 
and throughout I have found him true. This friendship 
has been a precious thing in my life. 



And this is why I prize this opportunity of placing 
my little laurel wreath on the living brow of the great 
man whose monument is The Associated Press of to-day 
and of having the unwonted pleasure of wearing my 
heart on my sleeve for the dear friend of so many years. 



A SERVANT OF PRESS AND PUBLIC 

A PERSONAL TRIBUTE 

By Frederic B. Jennings 
General Counsel of The Associated Press 

Frederic B. Jennings has been General Counsel 
of The Associated Press since the organization of 
the New York corporation. His connection has 
been much more than the perfunctory "business" 
relation of lawyer and client. He has been of the 
brotherhood, sympathizing deeply with the spirit 
and aims of the organization; in its legal battles 
he has fought with the enthusiasm of deep con- 
viction. And especially in the conduct of the 
great litigation now in progress to establish the 
Right of Property in News, he has exhibited a 
loyalty to the spirit of the battle and a degree of 
personal self-abnegation, realized only by those 
who have collaborated with him in the task. 

THE completion of a quarter of a century of suc- 
cessful effort is a notable event in the life of any 
man. When that effort has resulted in such achieve- 
ments as those accomplished by Melville E. Stone, it 
is natural that his friends should desire to mark the 
occasion by some testimonial of their esteem and af- 
fection. I consider it a privilege to be permitted to 
join in that testimonial. 

I met Mr. Stone for the first time in April, 1900, 
when he and certain publishers consulted me in regard 
to the organization of The Associated Press. The ques- 

62 



A SERVANT OF PRESS AND PUBLIC 

tions involved were important, and their determination 
not free from doubt. The publishers desired to form a 
co-operative organization, which could be conducted for 
the mutual benefit and protection of its members, free 
from obligation to others not admitted to membership. 

Mr. Stone was chiefly interested in the adequacy, 
accuracy, and integrity of the news service, and believed 
that, in the public interest, a news association should be 
under co-operative control and not subject to the domi- 
nation of any one newspaper or group of newspapers. 

After careful consideration it was decided to organize 
an Association under the Membership Corporations Law 
of New York, and The Associated Press was accordingly 
incorporated in May, 1900. In its organization and the 
preparation of the plan for its development Mr. Stone's 
great experience and thorough knowledge of the news 
business, his clarity and breadth of vision, his intelligent 
appreciation of the difficulties to be avoided and of the 
objects to be realized, his sound judgment, and, above 
all, the fact that he enjoyed the confidence of the pub- 
lishers generally, whose enlistment as members was es- 
sential, were invaluable, and without his assistance the 
formation of the Association would have been impossible. 

Its successful career, which has continued for seven- 
teen years and abundantly justified its organization, is 
largely due to the wise and resourceful management of 
Melville E. Stone. The confidence of its members in 
the Association, the reliance of the public upon its news, 
the high morale of its employees, the breadth of its 
activities, its world-wide arrangements for the collection 
of news, and its great success, are chiefly the result of his 
efforts. 

One of his notable achievements is the recent adjudi- 
cation by the courts that a news agency or a newspaper, 
which, by the expenditure of money and effort, has 
gathered the news, has a property right in it which is not 
lost by publication and can be protected by injunction. 

Mr. Stone for a long time had felt strong conviction 

63 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

upon this subject, and when the appropriation of our 
news by the International News Service during the War 
became so frequent and extensive as seriously to injure 
the Association, he urged that a suit be brought to 
enjoin it. This was done, and, upon a decision rendered 
by the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals sustaining our 
contentions, an injunction was obtained fully protecting 
our rights. 

Thus, Mr. Stone's opinion, long and earnestly main- 
tained, has become the settled law, and all honest news 
agencies and newspapers are largely indebted to him 
for the establishment of this principle, as applicable to 
news, so vital to the protection of their rights. It may 
well be doubted whether this decision would thus have 
been obtained had it not been for his clear and positive 
views upon the subject and his pertinacity in maintain- 
ing them. If his twenty-five years of devoted service 
to the news profession had produced no other result 
than this, they would not have been spent in vain. 
But this has been only an episode in his busy and 
useful life. 

He has built up an organization for the collection and 
dissemination of the news which, I suppose, has no equal 
anywhere in the world. He has placed it upon the sure 
foundation of fairness, accuracy, and reliability, upon 
which he has always insisted. Thus he has improved 
not only the quality of the news service, but also the 
character of the employees who are engaged in it. 

He has successfully served for twenty-five years two 
such critical masters as the Press and the Public, and 
still retains their confidence and esteem. Perhaps no 
greater tribute than this could be paid to the impar- 
tiality and success of his management. 

But this is not all. He has made few, if any, enemies, 
and his friends are legion. As he looks back upon this 
period of his life, one of his greatest sources of satisfaction 
must be that he has gained the confidence and respect 
of all, and the regard and affection of his many friends. 

64 







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Frank B. Noyes 

PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SINCE 1900 



A SERVANT OF PRESS AND PUBLIC 

I have had somewhat close and frequent association 
with him during the last seventeen years, and my relation 
with him has been one of the most delightful and cher- 
ished experiences of my life. During that time I have 
come to have the highest opinion of his intellectual 
ability, and the warmest esteem and affection for him. 
In my professional experience of more than forty years, 
I have never had a more considerate, intelligent, helpful, 
and satisfactory client than he. 

His apprehension is so quick and keen, his mind so 
active and resourceful, his judgment so sane and fair, 
that it has always been a great advantage and pleasure 
to work with him. 

But, after all, impressed as I have been by his re- 
markable intellectual powers, I have been quite as much 
affected by his qualities of heart, his good fellowship, 
his human sympathy, his sincerity, his kindly considera- 
tion for others, his toleration, his great fairness and lack 
of resentment even under the strongest provocation. 
These are the qualities which have so endeared him to 
his friends, all of whom will agree with me when I 
express the earnest hope that he may continue to serve 
the Press and all mankind, and to honor and delight us 
with his friendship, for very many years to come. 
5 



PROPERTY IN NEWS 

AN ARTICLE AND A TRIBUTE 

By Hon. Peter S. Gross cup 

Formerly Presiding Judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals 

"HPHE savage," says Gibbon, "who hollows out a 
A tree, inserts a sharp stone into a wooden handle, 
or applies a string to an elastic branch, becomes in a 
state of nature the just proprietor of the canoe, the bow, 
or the hatchet. The materials were common to all; 
the new form, the produce of his time and single in- 
dustry, belongs solely to himself." To the extent to 
which this illustration goes, it describes accurately the 
origin of property. But the illustration does not include 
enough; it does not include the moral conception on 
which the right of property rests ; for in the last analysis 
the canoe, the bow, and the hatchet are only a result — ■ 
the record carved in matter of the idea, the skill, the 
labor exerted — just as the musical notes on the com- 
poser's page are the outward record only of what has 
been transpiring in the composer's brain. The moral 
basis of property is the recognition of this inner thing — 
the inner creative process — that makes it only the just 
thing to set apart to the individual, as his moral right, 
the results of that process, whether it be something 
materially tangible like the canoe, the bow, or the 
hatchet, or something more or less materially intangible, 
such as an established service to others, carried on 
through foresight, skill, labor, and capital directed to a 
specified end. So much for the natural right and moral 
concept on which the institution of property is based. 

66 



PROPERTY IN NEWS 

Their protection and vindication by society through the 
State is another thing and has another history. 

The earliest known attitude of the State toward 
property, running back to the Babylonian Code, was 
confined to the bare recognition of the right as an ab- 
stract right; and the bare determination, through the 
courts of the time, where a concrete case of dispute arose, 
to whom the right belonged. And there the State 
stopped. It had devised no process to enforce that right 
even in favor of the one to whom it had adjudged it. 
Having obtained a bare decree by the State of what 
belonged to him, the owner was left to enforce it with 
his own unaided strength and devices as best he could; 
for beyond providing punishment for theft and like 
crimes against property, the State took no further inter- 
est. The owner was left to the remedy of ' ' self-help " — 
a remedy that put the individual in the same situation 
that nations even now occupy, in their enforcement of 
the nations' rights under international law. To sum 
it up in a sentence: Property rested on the recognition 
that what one created was rightfully his own — a recogni- 
tion not merely of might, but of moral and natural right 
— behind which was put the criminal function of the 
State, but only so far as interference with the individual's 
right constituted a crime against the State ; and behind 
it also the tribunals of the State, but only to decree what 
was the abstract right of the disputants. Beyond that 
the State was non-existent. Instead, in the earlier day, 
it was to the gods, and later to God, one had to look, 
aside from his own strength, for means to protect and 
vindicate his right — a faith in the special interposition 
of the supernatural, in the perception and protection of 
individual right, that as late as a few hundred years ago 
still clung to the remedy of "single combat" as something 
adequate; not, however, as a trial of physical strength 
between the disputants, but as a method of appeal to 
Heaven as the surest arbiter of the rightfulness of the 
disputants' claims. Not, indeed, until the Roman Em- 

67 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

pire was well on its way toward modern jurisprudence 
was anything like a judicial process devised to enforce the 
courts' decrees; and then only in the most clumsy and 
ineffectual way. And clumsy and ineffectual as they 
were, even these processes were almost entirely lost dur- 
ing the period between the Empire and what may be 
called recent times. In a word, society, as society, 
has seemed averse to putting itself, and its processes, 
between the individual and his own working out of his 
property rights. To make the State even a partially 
equipped guardian of property rights required the 
gradual formation and adoption of a wholly new concept 
respecting the function of the State. 

That function was accepted, in its beginning, chiefly 
in respect to land. The less tangible phases of economic 
life, such as mere agreements between men, and the 
services by one to another, were left, even after this, 
without the aid of the law. Even in England, the fore- 
most country in the world in attaining modern industrial 
civilization, the question whether an individual should 
keep his word to another or not was, up to the time of 
Sir Edward Coke, not a matter between him and the 
law, but between him and the Church. And when at 
last the civil courts displaced the ecclesiastical courts in 
the enforcement of agreements, as agreements, it was 
brought about under the cover of "fictions" of the law, 
that, except for what the "fiction" artificially wrought, 
left the function of the State where it had always been 
before. So true is this that it can truthfully be said 
that jurisprudence has always seemed to recoil, and 
still recoils, from anything like innovation. And when 
as in the case of agreements, as agreements — the driving 
power in modern industry — innovation becomes indis- 
pensable, the State covers its turn about-face with a 
mask of schoolmen logic which none can follow, but 
which every one sees through. 

It was to a jurisprudence thus loath to change, or even 
to enlarge, that the service of gathering and distributing 

68 






PROPERTY IN NEWS 

the news of the world had to appeal for protection. 
The man who stood in the forefront of that appeal was 
Melville E. Stone. He had the requisite qualifications. 
To bring anything new out of the inertia of the self- 
satisfied past, especially out of a self-satisfied past such 
as jurisprudence is that resents change, required more 
than the mere exercise of intellectual perception. It 
was not enough that he could perceive that a service 
such as The Associated Press gave was in itself as much 
an individual creation as the canoe, the bow, or the 
hatchet. Others had long perceived that. What was 
needed was a man who should feel the wrong done — a 
moral twinge similar to physical pain — by the lack of 
protection; for mere intellectual perception stops when 
it is balked — it is only the one who keenly feels who per- 
sists. Mr. Stone both saw and felt. Here was a service, 
as he saw it, that had its trained brains at every vantage- 
point in the world — brains trained not only how to find, 
but how to winnow. Here was a service that converged 
those gatherings into common centers where they went 
through the brains of other men trained by experience, 
and fitted by their wider outlook on the world, to reject 
the uninstructive or the uninteresting, and to divide 
even the instructive and interesting into that which 
was local and that which was general. Here were brains, 
too, trained to put truth above mere newsiness — so much 
so that The Associated Press is a recognized balance and 
mentor against the temptation of special correspondents 
to make out of an event more than it deserves. And 
here were contracts under which was secured the use of 
wires, and working capital, together with arrangements 
with other agencies throughout the world that made them 
auxiliaries to The Associated Press. Surely, insisted Mr. 
Stone, such service, though largely consisting in the 
organization and co-ordination of trained brain-power, 
should be put on the level of other created things to 
which protection is extended. 

And Mr. Stone, though not a lawyer, was right. 

69 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Twenty-odd years ago the question in an indirect way 
came before the United States Circuit Court of Appeals 
at Chicago, in a case between the Western Union 
Telegraph Company serving news over its tickers to 
its customers, and a parasite organization that, snatch- 
ing the items from the tickers, offered to re-serve them 
to its customerss at reduced prices. The case was as- 
signed to me to prepare the opinion, in the course of 
which the service of The Associated Press came into my 
mind as a related subject-matter. Meeting Mr. Stone 
on the train, I started inquiries respecting his company 
which resulted in a revelation of the nature and extent 
of its work, of much of which I had been previously 
uninformed. I recall his interest, his earnestness, that 
revealed not only perception by the intellect, but the 
driving power of feeling of which I have spoken. And 
when the case was decided on principles that have 
since upheld the right of The Associated Press to pro- 
tection for its service, I recall his satisfaction and his 
expression of grim determination to some time bring its 
principles to the protection of news enterprise. 

All great principles are essentially simple. We talk of 
news as "property." We lay emphasis on the word 
"property" because of a dogma that has crept into 
equity jurisprudence that an injunction will only be 
issued in aid of the rights of property. And in the sense 
that the quality of property attaches in favor of its 
creator to every useful thing, tangible and intangible, 
that has been created for the benefit of men, the service 
of The Associated Press is property. But the essence 
of the right involved, expressed in language outside the 
books, is that through the service of The Associated 
Press, and like associated enterprise, every membership 
paper puts upon the breakfast table, or the evening 
library table, of its readers, every day, a drama of the 
world happenings for the day just past; thus co- 
ordinating every quarter of the globe, in its larger affairs, 
into a single community; and that without such service, 

70 



PROPERTY IN NEWS 

or something taking its place, there would be no human 
vision or feeling of any consequence that extended be- 
yond the boundary lines of the locality in which one 
lives. The principle is simple. But it took the right 
man to press home that principle to a practical ful- 
filment. The newspaper man bound up with his own 
particular newspaper would not do it unless in con- 
junction with others; and action that can proceed only 
from the joint initial effort of many is apt not to start 
at all. To do it, it took a man who would not be 
deterred through the misapplication of other rulings of 
the courts, employing similar phraseology, such as copy- 
right and its rules respecting "publication." It took 
a man who would brave, when the right time came, the 
constitutional inertia of jurisprudence. Above all it 
took a man not only big enough intellectually to perceive 
that the principle was right, but big enough in moral 
stature to feel that a denial of that principle in practice 
was a wrong, not only to his own company, but to the 
people at large whom that company, and other like 
agencies were engaged in serving. To his credit let it 
be recorded that Mr. Stone was big enough, both in- 
tellectually and in moral stature, to fill that requirement. 
In a very large way he has been a pioneer, not alone in 
bringing his own calling under the protection of law, 
but in persuading the law to liberalize its views respect- 
ing the nature of human accomplishment that can right- 
fully claim its concern and protection. 

Let me add to this inadequate presentation of what 
Mr. Stone has done in the way of putting the business of 
gathering and distributing news under the protection of 
the law, a note personal to Mr. Stone himself. At the 
Virginia Hotel in Chicago where we both lived for a 
while was a room to which the men occasionally re- 
paired after dinner to talk over what happened to be in 
the limelight for the time being. I had liked Mr. Stone 
from the beginning of our acquaintance, but I came 
to like him still more in the growing insight I got of his 

7i 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

qualities and character in that room. And I believe I 
know why that liking grew. Besides his wide acquaint- 
ance, even then, with the world and the men in the 
world worth while, which made him an interesting con- 
versationalist ; besides what I may call his liberal philos- 
ophy of life, in the light of which he saw things with 
both the breadth of vision and the charity that only the 
philosopher employs ; besides what amounted in him to 
an instinct of right and wrong — an instinct that felt 
what was right and what wrong (you see I lay stress 
on that) as well as intellectually perceived it; besides 
his gentleness, his innate good breeding, his readiness 
always to help; besides all these qualities, he had the 
quality of looking, with those gray eyes of his, every 
situation, whatever the subject matter, or whomsoever 
involved, squarely in the face. There was nothing of 
the shuffler about him. He neither passed on others, 
nor allowed others to pass on him, counterfeit intellectual 
coin. And so liking all his qualities, I believe I liked 
this last one the most. 



PROPERTY IN NEWS 

A LETTER FROM MELVILLE E. STONE 
TO HON. F. W. LEHMANN 

THE following letter from the files of The Associated 
Press, written by Mr. Stone himself, written with no 
idea of its being published, gives his own general view 
of the matter, and in some measure the history of the 
subject. It was written to Hon. F. W. Lehmann, 
formerly Solicitor-General of the United States, and 
later active in the litigation on the part of The Associated 
Press to establish the Right of Property in News. 
Certain personal allusions, unessential to the subject, 
are omitted: 

April 3, igi6. 
My dear Mr. Lehmann: 

... It gives me great satisfaction to learn that you are considering 
the subject of copyright. For more than ten years I have had views 
upon the subject. 

Of course you are familiar with the great contest in England, a 
century and a half ago, between the common-law right of property 
in literature and the statutory right as expressed in the act of Queen 
Anne. You know how in the case of Beckett vs. Donaldson, on 
appeal to the Lords, five questions were proposed to the Judges, 
and how on the fourth question, viz., "Whether the author of any 
literary composition, or his assigns, had the sole right of printing 
and publishing the same in perpetuity by the common law," seven 
Judges decided in the affirmative and four in the negative; while in 
the fifth question, viz., "Whether this right is any way impeached, 
restrained, or taken away by the statute of 8 Anne," six decided in 
the affirmative and five in the negative. A single vote in the bank 
of Judges settled this great question. 

This was bad enough, and, I think, enough of a miscarriage of 
justice of that day. But, after all, it applied to literature as literature 
existed in 1774. Since then there has been a complete revolution in 

73 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

conditions, and, as Lowell put it, "New occasions teach new duties." 
Telegraphy, the cable, the wireless, the telephone, and all the ap- 
pliances for intercommunication provided during the past century, 
have called into being a new literature and a new industry. We call 
the "literature" news, and the gathering and the distributing of it 
constitutes the industry. The old definitions of property — those of 
Adam Smith and the other economists of the Manchester School — 
do not apply. Proudhon had a glimmering of the fact. The result 
of individual effort is property, and the possession of it is capital. 
The old idea was that property was always corporeal. News is 
incorporeal, yet none the less property, and, to the owner, capital. 
Can there be any mistake about this? 

You ask if it is practicable to copyright news despatches. Let me 
tell you the history of the effort to do so. Back about thirty years, 
when I was editing the Chicago Daily News, I cabled my friend, 
Charles Stewart Parnell, for a cabled message explanatory of the 
attitude of the Irish Nationalist Party, of which he was chief. He 
responded, and it was a news despatch of tremendous interest at the 
time. Ainsworth Spofford was Librarian of Congress. William E. 
Curtis was my chief Washington correspondent. The law required 
an applicant to file with the Librarian of Congress the printed 
title of his "book" — an article being construed to be a "book" — 
with a fee of one dollar. The matter was finally adjusted by an 
arrangement with Spofford that I should wire the title of an article 
to Curtis, he should "print" it on a typewriter, and should put 
this "printed" title in an envelope with a dollar bill and, in the 
middle of the night, slip it under the door of Spofford's residence, 
and this should be held to be a compliance with the law. In this 
fashion I began the copyrighting of news matter in this country. 
The practice has gone on ever since. . . . 

When I passed over to The Associated Press I made a closer study 
of the copyright business and, although we occasionally copyrighted 
our telegrams, I never had any faith in the idea that our statutes 
really gave us protection from piracy, or that they were intended to 
do so. 

Yet there are equities in the matter which deserve consideration. 
A single telegram has sometimes cost The Associated Press thousands 
of dollars. Obviously, in all justice, we were entitled to the fruits 
of our enterprise. Yet every "book lawyer" — those without imagi- 
nation, or real insight into the underlying equity — told me that pub- 
lication of a news message in The Associated Press newspapers 
dedicated it to the public and thereafter The United Press, or any 
one else, was free to use it as he liked. I have never agreed with 
this view. I have held that the printing of Associated Press tele- 
grams in one of our papers was really a limited publication. And 

74 



PROPERTY IN NEWS 

the doctrine of " limited publication" is familiar to you. You 
may go to a theater, witness and enjoy a play, but you are not 
privileged to shorthand and reproduce it. 

Well, I cannot escape the view that when you buy a copy of 
the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for one cent, you are entitled to enjoy 
the reading of it, but are not privileged either in equity or morals 
to reproduce and sell its contents. 

Piracy of this sort has been a serious thing for The Associated Press 
for years. We are in a large way the only organization in this country 
gathering the world's news from original sources. We receive an 
important message at large cost from, say China, and the instant 
it is printed in one of our New York papers it is seized and by the 
rapid processes of telegraphy is sent broadcast over the land by 
rival associations. As their news thus costs them little, or frequently 
nothing, they are able to take members from us and serve them with 
our news cheaper than we ourselves can do it. . . . 

The Associated Press is the joint reporter for its members. The 
news it reports belongs to these members. Does their publication 
of it in their newspapers at a nominal cost for the enjoyment and 
edification of their subscribers constitute such an abandonment 
of the matter as to give any one the right to pirate and reprint 
it? . . , 

As a rule our rivals rewrite our telegrams. But I take it as a well- 
settled principle of law that this does not relieve them from respon- 
sibility. I remember a Michigan case where a man made a map of 
Allegan County. Another man copied it, and Judge Cooley, I 
think it was, granted an injunction holding that B might make his 
own survey of the county and issue a map identical with A's, but 
that he could not copy A's and enjoy without original labor or enter- 
prise the fruit of A's effort. . . . 

Sincerely yours, 

Melville E. Stone. 



IS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A TRUST? 

By the Hon. Frederick W. Lehmann 
Formerly Solicitor-General of the United States 

AT THE fifth annual banquet of The Associated 
• Press (Incorporated in Illinois) given at the Grand 
Pacific Hotel, Chicago, on May 18, 1898, Frederick W. 
Lehmann, of St. Louis, who afterward was Solicitor- 
General of the United States, delivered an address which 
showed his complete understanding of and sympathy 
with the underlying spirit of the organization. It is, in 
a way, a classic among the literature of the service. 
Mr. Lehmann at that time had been one of the attorneys 
for the Association in various litigation; in later times 
he has served in like capacity, especially in connection 
with the proceeding brought by the Publisher of the 
New York Sun against The Associated Press (New York 
Corporation) before the Attorney-General of the United 
States, and in the case now pending to establish the 
Right of Property in News. Even so early as the occa- 
sion of this speech of twenty years ago Mr. Lehmann 
saw, and dwelt upon from another point of view, the 
great principle which he is helping to defend to-day 
before the highest court of the land. 

Mr. Lehmann said: 

"Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen of The Associated 
Press : I am very glad to meet with my client, gathered 
as he is from the Lakes and the Gulf, from the western 
and the eastern frontiers of the country, in this central 
city of American civilization, and I am glad to know 
that he is not only 'Associated' but 'Sociable' as well. 

76 



IS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A TRUST? 

''When I received the invitation from Mr. Stone to be 
here I recognized in it an illustration of his habitual 
foresight and sagacity. An English solicitor having oc- 
casion to dine with his client, after the case had been 
tried, had such recollections of the event that he en- 
tered it as the largest item in his bill of costs, ' To dining 
with you, after verdict of the jury against us, five 
pounds.' Mr. Stone has taken the precaution to have us 
dine together before the case is tried, so that there will 
be no possibility of an adverse fortune interfering with 
the good cheer of the occasion. 

"Is The Associated Press a Trust? [Voices: 'No, No!'] 
It was suggested to-day that it had some of the charac- 
teristics of that institution, and that the representatives 
of American newspapers when they met together laughed 
in each other's faces, as did the old Roman augurs in 
their sacrifices. If after four hundred years of the use of 
the printer's art there is no higher sincerity and candor 
in its chief ministers than in the pagan priesthood, it 
were better that the art had never been discovered. 

"What is a trust — not in the technical sense, but in the 
broad and popular sense of the word? It is an associa- 
tion, combination, arrangement, or understanding be- 
tween the producers or the dealers in a commodity 
for the purpose of enhancing its price to the public. 
The pretext in every instance has been some improve- 
ment of internal economy which shall reduce the cost 
of production, and that being true, it follows that the 
trust is beneficial at once to its promoters and to the 
public. And if that were true the public has intelligence 
enough to perceive it, and they would believe it. But 
they do not believe it, and for the simple reason that it is 
not true. 

"The trust finds itself relieved from the necessity of 
improving its internal economies, because it has power 
over the market; it has control of prices, and thus se- 
cures its profits, and does not have occasion to work 
for the improvements that tend to a reduction of cost. 

77 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

And while in many instances reductions in prices have 
followed the formation of a trust, they have always 
been in spite of it and never because of it. [Applause.] 
There never would be any objection on the part of the 
public to competitors in any line of business engaging 
with each other in respect of anything in which, though 
competitors, they have yet a common interest. Suppose 
the manufacturers of Buffalo united to utilize the water 
power of Niagara Falls. Nobody would characterize 
that as a trust. Suppose the merchants of Chicago com- 
bined to secure better transportation facilities for the city. 
Nobody would characterize that as a trust. And this is 
the test, whether an association between people in the 
same business is a trust or whether it is a combination 
for purposes of internal economy — does the association 
deal exclusively with a matter of common internal in- 
terest to them, or does it deal with their relations to the 
public ? 

"Now, apply that test to The Associated Press. The 
business of The Associated Press relates exclusively to a 
matter of internal economy. It relates to the gathering 
of news, and it does not relate to the vending of news- 
papers. There is nothing in the articles of The Asso- 
ciated Press, there is nothing in its tacit understandings, 
there is nothing consistent with the purposes of its or- 
ganization which can result in a combination between 
the newspapers themselves having for its purpose the 
regulation of the prices at which papers are sold. And 
the sole object of the Association is to regulate its in- 
ternal economy in its own interest and equally in the 
interest of the public. And every newspaper man can 
honestly and conscientiously defend his scheme of co- 
operation with his brethren in the news-gathering busi- 
ness. [Applause.] And in this position I am glad to 
say that I am confirmed by those who are opposing us 
in the litigation before the court. In Missouri one 
gentleman is trying, with the help of the courts, to 
burglarize the institution, to break into it, and while 

78 



IS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A TRUST? 

he indulges in some epithets he undertakes distinctly 
to disprove that The Associated Press is a combination 
of the newspapers ; and undertakes to characterize it as 
a distinct institution, seeking to subserve its own pur- 
poses of pecuniary profit without regard to the immediate 
interests of the individual newspapers that make up 
its membership. And the dependence in that case for 
compelling The Associated Press to serve him with its 
reports, whether it will or no, is rather upon the view 
that the press is engaged in a service of a public nature. 

''There are services which the law from time imme- 
morial has recognized as public, has regulated and has 
compelled to be at the disposal of whosoever sought 
them. The most familiar instance is that of the common 
carrier; and the elaborate provisions of the Interstate 
Commerce law of the United States, and the equally 
elaborate provisions of the different State regulations of 
railroads declare no principle which was not an essential 
part of the law of the king's highway five hundred years 
ago, and which did not apply just as much to the com- 
merce that was carried on in cattle carts between the 
towns of Great Britain then, as it applies to the com- 
merce carried on by the railways of this country to-day. 
[Applause.] The nature of the function is not deter- 
mined by the dimensions of the instrumentality by which 
it is carried on. The little skiff that carried passengers 
across a stream not fordable is as much a vehicle of 
commerce, is as much a common carrier as the great 
Atlantic liner, and is subject to the same law, and is so 
subject to it because the function that it performs is 
essentially the same. 

' ' We are the victims of a mistaken terminology. We 
speak of news as a commodity in the same sense in which 
we characterize coal as a commodity. But a moment's 
reflection will show that it is of an essentially different 
character. What is the report of The Associated Press 
— that is all that it has to offer to its members; that is 
all that it could have to offer to any one — is it a com- 

79 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

modity? Is it something tangible? The blowing up 
of the Maine — was that news? No; the report of that 
event was news. The property of The Associated Press 
was not the event itself, nor even the information of the 
event, but simply that particular narration of the event 
which one of its own agents, becoming tne possessor of 
the information, undertook to convey to his employer — 
that and nothing more. [Applause.] 

"You have men upon Cuban soil who venture upon 
the very verge of the battle, who have ventured within 
the enemy's lines, who have imperiled their lives, and 
are to-day possibly subject to be shot as spies if they are 
captured. What do they bring into the conduct of their 
business? Courage, enterprise, and intelligence. And 
these high qualities are their own, and what they achieve 
through them is their own, and no law consistent with 
free institutions can compel them to share the fruits of 
their perilous industry with the coward and the sluggard 
who lag behind. - Can it be possible that while one man 
is willing to go forward and to venture the perils of a 
news-gathering service in a time like this, another may 
sit comfortably in the rear and undertake to determine 
the value in money of the differential between cowardice 
and courage, between enterprise and indolence ? [Great 
applause.] Col. Fred Burnaby undertook to report the 
war in Egypt. He reported it, not from afar, but from 
a place in the ranks of battle, and he went down in the 
front rank of battle with the thrust of a savage spear 
through his throat, regretting, perhaps, that he was not 
able to report his own death! [Applause.] 

1 ' Events occur. They may be within the knowledge of 
a thousand people. One man may have the quality of 
mind that enables him to perceive in a given event some- 
thing of human interest. He is able to give to the 
report of that event a form — a literary form — which 
makes it attractive. That report is his property, to 
dispose of absolutely as he will, and upon whatsoever 
conditions or limitations he chooses to impose. And 

80 




Charles W. Knapp 

PRESIDENT IN 1900 OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 
INCORPORATED IN ILLINOIS 



IS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A TRUST? 

there never was an enactment of the United States that 
put any limitation upon his right thus to dispose of his 
own personal efforts. 

"We have laws that compel services of a certain kind. 
We have laws that compel railroads to be operated in the 
interests of the general public. But the mandate of that 
law lies upon the property, and does not lie upon the 
individuals engaged in the service. The laws of the 
United States and of the different States of this Union 
say that railroad embankments, that railroad ties and 
rails, that locomotive engines and cars running over 
those rails are instruments of commerce, and are im- 
pressed with a public use. But there never was a statute 
of the United States or of any State, and there never 
was a decision of any court, saying that the man who sat 
in the cab of the engine, the man who operated it, was 
a bondman of the law, not having the freedom that 
every citizen of this country had ; there never was a law 
that said that he must operate the railroad whether he 
chose to do so or not. [Applause.] 

"And so it has been with the innkeeper. The obliga- 
tion of the law rested upon the inn and not upon the land- 
lord. So it was with the mill. The obligation of the 
law rested upon the mill and not upon the miller. 
Never, never since the olden days when men were not 
recognized as free and independent, never since we 
escaped the influence of the legislation that was sug- 
gested by the Black Plague and promoted by it, in 
accordance with which Parliament undertook to pre- 
scribe the hours of labor and of service for the poor — 
the equality of all men was recognized by the law — has 
there been any attempt in Anglo-Saxon to constrain 
or compel the personal services of men not convicted of 
crime. 

"Now, what do your reporters — what do your news- 
gatherers — carry into their work? No privilege con- 
ferred by any law, no franchise granted by any State, 
no opportunity that is not open to any one of their f ellow- 
6 81 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

citizens. Their report is a thing of brain and brawn, 
and in it is to be found nothing but that labor which 
responds to the primal law of God — 'In the sweat of 
thy face shalt thou eat bread all the days of thy life.' 
[Applause.] 

"The property which you have in your news, for pur- 
poses of immediate publication, is simply that property 
which a man has in his own homestead. Is it exclusive ? 
Yes, so is all ownership. The owner of a horse has a 
monopoly of his use. That kind of monopoly is of the 
very essence of property of all kinds, exclusive in the 
particular thing which has either been produced by the 
labor of the owner or has been bought by him when 
produced by the labor of some one else. That property 
is always defensible. 

"You have not only The Associated Press, extending 
over the United States; you have your limited associa- 
tions in the cities. If a hundred or more newspapers 
may not combine in the United States to gather news for 
themselves, then why may three or four combine in the 
city of Chicago or the city of St. Louis for the purpose of 
gathering up more economically certain matters of 
routine news in those cities? If The Associated Press 
must give to whomsoever wishes it, then your local 
association must do the same. And it goes beyond that 
— the individual reporter, having news, must give it up 
to whomsoever demands it, because the nature of the 
function is the same, and you do not alter its character 
because you multiply the number of reporters. [Great 
applause.] A hundred black rabbits do not make a 
black horse. [Laughter.] And that ought not to be 
limited to news. If the newspaper that sends an ex- 
pedition into the heart of Africa, if the newspaper that 
undertakes the exploration of the Arctic regions, must, 
upon compulsion, give the results of its enterprise and 
its energy to whomsoever will — then why should not 
the man who explores his own inner consciousness and 
discovers ideas of worth and dignity, why should not he 

82 



IS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A TRUST? 

be compellable to yield that to whomsoever may demand 
it? Rudyard Kipling produces the 'Recessional.' We 
may read it and make it our own; it is mine and it is 
yours so far as it constitutes an addition to intellectual 
wealth, but if we undertake to make use of it beyond 
that, if we undertake to make use of it by printing it 
and selling it when printed, we are simply reaping 
where we have not sown, and gathering where we have 
not strewn. [Applause.] The right of The Associated 
Press to the reports that it has gathered is as high as the 
right of each of its individual reporters to the fruit of 
his own labor. It is as high as the right of every author 
to the productions of his own mind and his own pen; 
and I do not believe that, however courts may differ, 
any one of them will ever reach the conclusion that you 
can be made to serve those whom you choose not to 
serve ; for if that injunction can be laid upon you as a 
body, it can be laid upon every one of your individual 
members. 

4 'We have here an Association numbering, if we include 
all those who by the rules of the Association may be 
fairly considered its members, something like seven hun- 
dred. There are twenty-one hundred daily newspapers 
in the United States. It perhaps does not become me 
as a representative of the seven hundred to deny the 
assertion made by the fourteen hundred that you have 
a monopoly of the news-gathering enterprise and abilities 
of this country. [Applause.] But if I were on the other 
side I would want to find some other ground on which 
to plant my case. They stand upon precisely that foot- 
ing. They stand upon the footing that a field of enter- 
prise which is open to every individual in this country, 
whether he owns a newspaper or does not — a field of 
enterprise which indeed in the old country is chiefly 
exploited by a man who has not a newspaper — they 
stand upon the footing that this field which is open to 
enterprise, open to courage, open to sagacity, open to 
industry, is closed to them. Well, the courts will never 

83 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

protect the sluggard. [Applause.] Laws are made for 
the diligent, and you will be protected in the outcome 
because you are simply asserting the right to the fruits 
of your own labor. And there is no higher and no 
profounder principle involved in this controversy than 
that proclaimed in the days of old, that the laborer is 
worthy of his hire." [Cheers.] 



ARTICLES AND ADDRESSES 

By Melville E. Stone 



ARTICLES AND ADDRESSES BY 
MELVILLE E. STONE 

AS AN interpreter of American journalism, especially 
in its newsgathering function — as an interpreter 
of the American newspaper to itself and to its public — 
Melville E. Stone has occupied a position almost if not 
quite unique. As General Manager and protagonist of 
The Associated Press, leading and representing it, he 
has stood in a way apart from the detail of the daily 
business of newspaper publishing; able to see the forest 
rather than the trees ; free to upraise and uphold the 
standards above the heads of the crowd. The tempta- 
tion and tendency of a man in such a position is to 
theorize and pontificate, to put forth " counsel of per- 
fection" attainable only in the day of the "far-off,, 
divine event," when the sordid business of competition 
and profit-making shall have gone into the limbo of 
forgotten things, and every newspaper, without teaching 
or urging or wholesome fear of the libel laws, shall 
exemplify the highest ideals of the profession and 
spontaneously tell the truth about a world in which the 
truth is all pleasant to tell and edifying to read. The 
strength of this man as a teacher of the newspaper pro- 
fession lies in the fact that what he advocates he him- 
self has done. The ideals that he upholds he has 
exemplified. He has practised his preaching, and proved 
it not only practicable but profitable. 

In the foregoing pages the story of his activities r 
largely in the work of actual newspaper making, has 
been told objectively by others. Lifelong friends have 

87 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

set forth their opinion of and affection for a live man 
who has stood with them in the dust of hard work and 
sturdy conflict. 

A little gamin was asked once for his definition of a 
Friend. 

"I think a Friend is a feller," he said, "what knows 
all about yer, and likes yer just the same." 

Friends of exactly that kind are the men who have 
told what they think of Melville E. Stone. In every 
case the acquaintance with him has been a matter of 
long and trying and eventful years. His partner in 
"the then little adventure" of the Chicago Daily News, 
and in the embattled days of The Associated Press In- 
corporated in Illinois as well as in the present corporation, 
speaks from the point of view of nearly half a century 
of closest contact. The President of The Associated 
Press gives his tribute of loyalty and affection after an 
association of the most intimate kind going back almost 
to the beginning of the twenty-five years of which this 
book is a memento. The lawyers who speak of the 
immensely important litigation in which they have 
worked with him freely acknowledge that in it he has 
given them not only leadership and inspiration, but 
even something of instruction in the law itself; they, too, 
go over the line of confession into the field of boast, 
in their pride in a feeling toward this man that is some- 
thing more than friendship. The writer of the bio- 
graphical sketch of Stone has served for many years 
under his command in the ranks of The Associated 
Press. The tribute of regard and affection is unanimous. 

In the ensuing pages Melville Stone speaks for him- 
self. He does more than that. He draws unwittingly 
an extraordinarily faithful and convincing portrait of 
himself at his best. The same man who lived up to the 
high standards of news judgment and editorial respon- 
sibility which he set for the Chicago Daily News has 
taken for granted and exemplified their application to 
the work of The Associated Press. In the addresses 

88 



ARTICLES AND ADDRESSES 

before the Kansas Editorial Association ("Unto Whom- 
soever Much Is Given") and the Pulitzer School of 
Journalism ("The American Newspaper") he has told 
the story of his own achievement and laid down a chart 
which every newspaper editor and publisher may study 
to his uplift and profit. In his five articles from the 
Century Magazine ("The Associated Press") and his 
Franklin Institute address ("Supplying the World With 
News") he has with rare vividness and dramatic power 
described the development of one of the most remarkable 
and characteristic embodiments of American constructive 
genius and ethical quality. In his Chautauqua address 
("The A. P. and Its Maligners") and his answers to 
critics of the Association ("Criticisms of The Associated 
Press") he has displayed his native wit and caustic style 
and at the same time his patience with well-meaning 
misinformation. In his historical speeches at Grand 
Rapids and Charleston, S. C. ("Blazing the Trail" and 
"The Light That Did Not Fail") and the Saturday 
Evening Post article on the Portsmouth Peace Con- 
ference he has exhibited his wide knowledge of the 
history of his country and the origins of its passion for 
liberty. In his speech at Brooklyn on "The Russian 
Revolution" he has given expression in especially 
timely fashion to something of his own appreciation of 
and deep-lying sympathy for the aspiration of a great 
people for freedom and told some things not generally 
known about the historic friendship between the United 
States and Russia. 

The genius of The Associated Press, and the stand- 
point from which Melville Stone views the function of 
the newspapers and the great press association that 
serves them, are nowhere better exhibited than in the 
address under the title "The High Court of Public 
Opinion." * In this address, delivered upon the occa- 
sion of the centennial of the establishment of the Detroit 
Free Press, the first newspaper in Michigan, is set forth 

* Page 265 in this volume. 

89 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

a newspaper man's Profession of Faith, not only as to 
the ethic and responsibility of his own craft, but as to 
the relation it bears to human liberty and human 
government. The power of public opinion, led and 
expresssed by the responsible newspaper, to compel 
right action even from those who seem impervious to 
public opinion, is finely and impressively emphasized in 
this address by one who has lived his faith. 

There are many other articles and addresses which 
might be added to these, but they cover much the same 
ground. These are typical of the man, his work and 
his message. They speak for themselves, and they 
speak not alone to men of the newspaper profession, but 
to Americans of this day and the days to come. 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

By Melville E. Stone 

I 
NEWS-GATHERING AS A BUSINESS* 

THE business of news-gathering and news-publishing, 
as we know it, is wholly an American idea, having 
taken its rise in this country in the early years of the last 
century. There were coffee-houses in London and New 
York, where the men had been accustomed to resort to 
exchange the current gossip, and letters on important 
topics had occasionally been published; but before this 
time no systematic effort had been made to keep pace 
with the world's happenings. Then came the news- 
paper, supplanting the chap-book, the almanac, and the 
political pamphlet. 

In the new development half a dozen men were notable. 
Samuel Topliff and Harry Blake were the first news- 
mongers. Topliff established a " news-room" in Bos- 
ton, where he sold market reports and shipping intelli- 
gence ; and Blake was a journalistic Gaffer Hexam, who 
prowled about Boston Harbor in his rowboat, intercept- 
ing incoming European packets, and peddling out as 
best he could any news that he secured. Both these 
men displayed zeal and intelligence, and both became 
famous in their day. 

*From The Century Magazine, June, 1905. Reprinted here with the 
courteous permission of The Century Company. 

91 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Later, in 1827, Mr. Arthur Tappan, the merchant- 
philanthropist and reformer, founded the Journal of 
Commerce in New York to combat the growing in- 
fluence of the theater, which he regarded as pernicious. 
But the playhouses proved too strong for him, and 
within a year he sold the paper to David Hale and 
Gerard Hallock, two young Boston journalists. They 
were familiar with the work of ToplifT and Blake, and 
promptly transplanted their methods to New York. 
They discarded the rowboat, and built a handsome sea- 
going yacht, which they named the Journal of Commerce 
and ran twenty or thirty miles beyond Sandy Hook 
to meet incoming vessels. There had previously been 
a small combination of New York papers to gather 
ship news ; but the building of the Journal of Commerce 
incensed the other members, and they promptly expelled 
Hale and Hallock, who replied in a card, which was 
printed in their newspaper on October 9, 1828, as follows: 

Yesterday our new boat, the Journal of Commerce, went below 
for the first time, fully manned and equipped for service. We under- 
stand that her rival, the Thomas H. Smith, is also in readiness for 
similar duty. An opportunity is now afforded for an honorable 
competition. The public will be benefited by such extra exertions 
to procure marine news, and we trust the only contention between 
the two boat establishments will be, which can outdo the other in 
vigilance, perseverance, and success. In one respect, and in one 
only, we expect to be outdone; and that is, in collecting news on 
the Sabbath. This we shall not do, and if our Monday papers are, 
as we trust they will not often be, deficient in giving the latest 
marine intelligence, we must appeal to the candor and moral principle 
of our subscribers for a justification. 

Hale and Hallock also erected upon the Highlands, 
near Sandy Hook, a semaphore telegraph, to which their 
schooner signaled the news, and which in turn trans- 
mitted it to Staten Island. Thence the news was car- 
ried to the publication office in New York City. In this 
way they were able to distance all competitors. They 
also introduced to American journalism the "extra 

92 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

edition." The scenes about the office of the Journal 
of Commerce in those days aroused great public interest, 
and before long the proprietors enjoyed a national 
reputation. 

Not content with distancing their rivals in European 
news, they also established a pony express from Phila- 
delphia, with eight relays of horses. By this means they 
were frequently able to publish Southern news twenty- 
four hours in advance of their competitors. This sys- 
tem worked so successfully that the Federal Government 
took it over; but Hale and Hallock extended their ex- 
press to Washington, and thus maintained their suprem- 
acy. They frequently published official news from the 
capital before it had been received by the Government 
officers in New York. In one instance a Norfolk paper, 
published two hundred and thirty miles south of Wash- 
ington, copied the Washington news from the New York 
Journal of Commerce, which it received by sea before 
it had any direct advices. In time this enthusiasm 
waned, but with the advent of James Gordon Bennett 
and the New York Herald it revived, and the zeal then 
displayed has never been surpassed. 

The battle royal which was carried on between Gen- 
eral James Watson Webb of the New York Courier 
and Enquirer, on the one hand, and Bennett of the 
Herald, and Hale and Hallock of the Journal of Com- 
merce, on the other, is historic. 

When the war with Mexico broke out, Mr. Bennett 
was able, through his system of pony expresses, to pub- 
lish accounts of battles even before the Government 
despatches were received. He also had a carrier- 
pigeon service between New York and Albany for the 
annual messages of the Governor, which he printed 
ahead of every one. The Cunard liners ran between 
Liverpool and Boston, and Bennett, with characteristic 
energy, instituted a scheme for hurrying the news by 
pony express from Boston to New York. 

Topliff and Blake had been succeeded by D. H. 

93 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Craig, who established himself as an independent news 
collector and vender at Boston, and displayed extraor- 
dinary alertness. As the Cunard boats approached the 
harbor, Craig met them and received on his schooner a 
budget of news from the incoming vessel. Then by 
carrier-pigeons he communicated a synopsis of the news 
to his Boston office, frequently releasing the birds forty 
or fifty miles from port. 

Meanwhile Professor Morse was struggling with his 
invention of the magnetic telegraph. In 1838 he com- 
pleted his machinery and took it to Washington on the 
invitation of President Van Buren; but it was not until 
1843 that Congress appropriated $30,000 to build an 
experimental line. It took a year to construct this be- 
tween Washington and Baltimore, and it was not until 
the latter part of 1844 that it proved of any service for 
the transmission of news. 

With the advent of the telegraph, Craig determined to 
make use of this novel agency in his business, but en- 
countered the hostility of those having a monopoly of 
Morse's patents, who desired to control the news busi- 
ness themselves. There was a sharp contest. The New 
York papers joined forces with the telegraph people, and 
in 1848 organized The Associated Press, with Mr. Hallock 
as President and Dr. Alexander Jones as Manager. 

Its membership was limited to the proprietors of the 
six or seven New York dailies, and its purpose was to 
gather news for them only. Later, other newspapers 
in the interior arranged for exchanging news with it, 
and thus the enterprise developed into one of great 
importance. 

A hundred interesting stories are told of the experi- 
ences of Manager Jones. Because of the excessive cost 
of transmitting messages by the imperfect telegraph lines 
of that day, he devised a cipher, one word representing 
a sentence. Thus the word "dead" meant, in the Con- 
gressional reports, "After some days' absence from in- 
disposition, reappeared in his seat." When they desired 

94 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

to convey this information respecting Senator Davis of 
Massachusetts, they wired, "John Davis dead." But 
the word "dead" was not recognized as a cipher by the 
receiving operator, and all the papers of New York and 
Boston proceeded to print post-mortem eulogies, much 
to Davis's amusement. 

When the Whig convention of 1848 assembled at Phila- 
delphia, Jones planned to score a great "beat." The wires 
did not cross the river at Jersey City, and therefore he 
arranged for a flag signal across the North River. If 
General Taylor should prove to be successful, a white 
flag was to be waved. Unfortunately, another company 
was also signaling by white flags on another subject, and 
so Jones was misled into announcing Taylor's nomination 
before it happened. 

Jones was a better General Manager than prophet. 
In the light of to-day, the following declaration, which 
he published in 1852, is interesting: 

All idea of connecting Europe with America, by lines extending 
directly across the Atlantic, is utterly impracticable and absurd. 
It is found on land, when sending messages over a circuit of only 
four or five hundred miles, necessary to have relays of batteries 
and magnets to keep up or to renew the current and its action. 
How is this to be done in the ocean, for a distance of three thousand 
miles? But by the way of Behring's Strait the whole thing is prac- 
ticable, and its ultimate accomplishment is only a question of time. 

Craig, against whom the efforts of the association were 
directed, did not, however, surrender. As the Liverpool 
boats touched at Halifax en route to Boston, to this 
point he turned his attention. He had a synopsis of 
European happenings carefully prepared in Liverpool 
and placed in the purser's hands; and, on the arrival 
of the vessel at Halifax, the purser sealed this budget in 
a tin can, which was thrown overboard and picked up 
by Craig's representative, who hurried it on to Boston 
and New York by pony express, completely outstripping 
all rivals. The New York and Boston newspapers then 

95 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

chartered a steamer to express news from Halifax to 
Boston, with the idea of telegraphing it from Boston 
to New York. But Craig was equal to the emergency. 
Putting a pair of his best carrier-pigeons in a basket, he 
traveled by the land route to Halifax in season to take 
passage on the press express boat for Boston ; and when 
the steamer approached the shores of Massachusetts his 
pigeons, heavily freighted with the European news, were 
sent off from a window in his state-room. This was so 
adroitly done that, long before the express boat landed, 
Craig's pigeons had reached the city and the news they 
brought had been published. His opponents then gave 
up the fight, and elected Craig their General Manager. 

For the ensuing forty years they had no rival worthy 
of note. Hallock retired in 1861 and Craig in 1866. 
David M. Stone succeeded as President and James W. 
Simonton as General Manager. In 1882 there came a 
change. 

The Associated Press had grown to be all-powerful in 
its field, and an offensive and defensive alliance had been 
formed with the great Reuter News Agency, which had 
meanwhile grown up in Europe; but the association 
was owned by seven New York papers, which gathered 
such news as they desired and sold it to the newspapers 
of the inland cities. Important subsidiary associations, 
such as the New England Associated Press and the West- 
ern Associated Press, had been organized. They bought 
the news of the New York association and made payment 
in money, as well as a contribution of the news of their 
own localities ; but they had no voice in the management. 
The Western association finally revolted. There was a 
short-lived contest that ended in a compromise. The 
West was admitted to a partnership in the direction of 
the business. Two Western men, Richard Smith of Cin- 
cinnati and W. N. Haldeman of Louisville, joined White- 
law Reid and James Gordon Bennett in an Executive 
Committee ; Charles A. Dana was added as a fifth mem- 
ber and chairman; and William Henry Smith, who had 

96 




William Penn Nixon 



FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 
INCORPORATED IN ILLINOIS, 1892-1893 

{From a contemporary cut in " Harper's Magazine ") 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

served the Western association as manager, was ap- 
pointed General Manager. The compact ran for a term 
of ten years. 

All this while the association had confined its energies 
to the gathering and distribution of what is known 
among newspaper men as "routine news" — shipping, 
markets, sporting, Congressional reports, and the "bare 
bones" of a day's happenings. The owners of the great 
metropolitan dailies who controlled it preferred to hold 
the management in leash so that they might display en- 
terprise with their special reports of the really interesting 
events. The smaller papers, which were wholly depend- 
ent upon the association for general news, could not 
afford extensive special telegrams, and therefore desired 
the organization to make comprehensive reports of 
everything. 

During Mr. Smith's administration substantial im- 
provements were effected. Arrangements were made 
with the telegraph companies for leased wires, which were 
operated by the association itself. There was also not a. 
little display of real enterprise. Unfortunately, however, 
many of the employees were chosen because of their 
familiarity with the technical side of the telegraph busi- 
ness, and were often incapable of writing the news in 
interesting fashion. In addition, the organization was 
loosely planned, or, perhaps it would be more accurate to 
say, was not planned at all. It had grown up through 
constant compromises by more or less conflicting inter- 
ests, and the special concessions which were constantly 
being made led to a very considerable degree of friction. 
Many of the papers in the association enjoyed an exclu- 
sive right to the service, and it was almost a cardinal 
principle that no new paper could be admitted to its 
privileges without the consent of all Associated Press 
papers in the city of publication. As the country grew, 
such a plan made a rival organization inevitable. There 
was a close alliance, offensive and defensive, between 
The Associated Press and the Western Union Telegraph 
7 97 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Company, by the terms of which the association was 
given special advantages, and it in turn refused to 
patronize any rival telegraph company. 

From time to time enterprising men founded new 
papers which, under the rules, could not gain admission 
to The Associated Press. Rival telegraph companies also 
appeared in the field and established rival news services. 
Owing to the great strength of The Associated Press, 
these rival concerns struggled against heavy odds, but 
constantly grew in importance, until finally there were 
enough papers which had been unable to secure admit- 
tance to the association and enough telegraph companies 
contesting the field with the Western Union Company 
to organize a formidable competitor — The United Press. 
Behind it the two most important papers were the Boston 
Daily Globe and the Chicago Daily Herald, both of which 
were enterprising and financially strong. In London, 
also, there was established a rival to Reuter, called the 
Central News Agency, not very formidable, to be sure, 
yet sufficiently enterprising to furnish a fair summary of 
the world's news. It had a distinct advantage in the 
fact that the five hours' difference in time between Lon- 
don and New York enabled it to glean from the London 
morning papers the most important happenings in time 
to transmit them to America for publication in contem- 
poraneous issues. 

It was one of the rules of The Associated Press — both 
of the parent organization and of all the tributary asso- 
ciations — that a member should not traffic with any rival 
association; but the rules were so loosely drawn and so 
ineffectively enforced that The United Press was able to 
sell its report to a large number of papers. In many 
cases members of The Associated Press bought the United 
Press report, paying a considerable weekly sum for it, 
simply in order to prevent its use by a rival newspaper. 
All of this gave The United Press a considerable revenue 
and an important standing. Finally it menaced the 
supremacy of the older organization. 

98 



A P. 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Then an unfortunate compromise was effected. Those 
in the management of The Associated Press privately 
purchased a controlling interest in the stock of The 
United Press, and made a secret agreement that the two 
associations should work in harmony. The existence of 
this private arrangement was disclosed in 1892, as the 
ten-year alliance between the New York Associated 
Press and the Western Associated Press was about to 
terminate. It created great commotion. The Western 
Associated Press refused to go on under such an agree- 
ment. Finally the New York Associated Press was ab- 
sorbed by The United Press, and the Western Associated / 
Press set out to operate independently. At that moment 
I was invited to become General Manager of the Western 
association. I had been a member of the Board of Direc- 
tors and of the Executive Committee of that organization 
during the years that I had edited the Chicago Daily 
News, and I was reasonably familiar with the business. 

A struggle for supremacy between the two agencies 
opened at once. The United Press had the support of all 
the newspapers east of the Alleghany Mountains, and 
the Western Associated Press had only a majority of 
those in the West, while the papers of the South at first 
endeavored to maintain friendly relations with both, but 
later fell into the arms of The United Press. In point 
of membership, as well as in financial strength, the West- 
ern organization seemed to be no match for its Eastern 
rival, but it had one important advantage. In its plan 
of organization it was a democracy, and its management 
was subject to the control of its entire membership. The 
United Press, on the other hand, was a close corporation, 
in the hands of a few men, and the large majority of 
the papers receiving its report were merely clients having 
no vote in the management. 

The contest lasted for four years, and was waged 
with great bitterness. Early in its progress I went to 
Europe and arranged an alliance with Reuter. This was 
a blow from which The United Press never recovered. 

99 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Mr. Victor F. Lawson, my former partner in the owner- 
ship of the Chicago Daily News, was elected President 
and devoted himself with great persistency and disin- 
terestedness to the upbuilding of the organization. He 
and I set out for New York, where we began a prolonged 
missionary effort. It happened that Mr. Horace White 
of the New York Evening Post, Mr. Joseph Pulitzer of 
the New York World, and Mr. John Cockerill of the New 
York Commercial Advertiser, were all Western men who 
had been long-time friends of mine, and it was not diffi- 
cult to convince them of the wisdom of our plan of 
organization. 

When I called upon Mr. White I found him busily 
writing an editorial. Scarcely pausing in his work, he 
said : ' * I am with you. I do not believe in an association 
which is controlled by three or four men. The Evening 
Post will join your company. But I am under pledge 
to make no move in the matter without consulting my 
friends of the New York Staats-Zeitung and the Brooklyn 
Eagle." Very soon the Evening Post, the Staats- 
Zeitung, the World, the Morning Advertiser, and the 
Commercial Advertiser of New York, as well as the 
Brooklyn Eagle, abandoned The United Press and joined 
the Western organization. A special meeting was called 
in Chicago, and The Associated Press was reorganized 
as a national institution. The fact that it retained the 
name — "The Associated Press" — which for over forty 
years had been a household word in the United States 
was of great value, editors, as a rule, recognizing the 
desirability of advertising (as they had done for many 
years) their connection with The Associated Press 
rather than their alliance with The United Press. The 
title "The Associated Press" was a most valuable 
trade-mark. 

In time the Philadelphia papers, certain New England 
papers, and a number of journals in Central New York, 
also abandoned The United Press and joined The Asso- 
ciated Press. The contest resulted in placing a heavy 

ioo 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

burden of expense upon both organizations. The nor- 
mal revenues of neither were sufficient to maintain its 
service at the standard of excellence required by the 
competition. The members of The Associated Press 
promptly assembled and subscribed to a large guaranty 
fund to provide for the deficits, while the four or five 
New York papers behind The United Press were com- 
pelled to contribute in like manner in order to hold 
their clients to any degree of allegiance. Month by 
month and year by year the converts to The Associated 
Press grew in number and the burden of expense upon 
the New York papers became heavier. At length the 
Boston Herald joined The Associated Press, and the 
collapse of The United Press followed. On April 8, 1897, 
Mr. Dana, who was then its President, made, in its be- 
half, a voluntary assignment, and on that day two or 
three hundred of its members were admitted to The 
Associated Press. 

A small number of papers still found it impossible to 
join, and were compelled to form another association, 
which has now grown into The Publishers' Press* organi- 
zation, serving a large number of papers, chiefly after- 
noon issues, with a creditable report. Two years later 
there was a clash with a member of The Associated 
Press in Chicago, litigation ensued, and the Supreme 
Court of Illinois rendered a decision adverse to the As- 
sociation. In order to safeguard their interests, and 
because experience had shown defects in the plan of 
organization, a number of the leading members formed 
a new association, and incorporated it under the law 
of the State of New York. Substantially all of the mem- 
bers withdrew from the existing organization and joined 
the new corporation. There was no legal connection 
between the two, although the one which ceased to exist 
and the one which came into existence at the same mo- 

*It should be remembered that this article was written in 1905. The 
Publishers' Press of that day was subsequently merged in the present 
United Press Associations. 

101 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

ment were both called The Associated Press and the 
membership was virtually identical. 

It is this New York corporation which for the last 
five years has been known as The Associated Press. 
As its name indicates, it is an organization of newspapers 
for the purpose of gathering news on joint account. 
It is purely mutual in its character, and in this respect is 
unique. All of the other news-supplying agencies of the 
world are proprietary concerns. It issues no stock, 
makes no profit, and declares no dividends. It does not 
sell news to any one. It is a clearing-house for the 
interchange of news among its members only. Its 
membership consists of seven hundred daily newspapers 
published in the United States, each of which contributes 
to the common budget all news of national interest 
originating in its vicinity, pays a weekly assessment 
representing its share of the general expense of conduct- 
ing the business, and has its vote in the election of the 
management. The annual budget is divided thus:* 
Salaries — executive, editors, correspondents, operators, 
messengers, etc., $1,031,000; leased wires and telegraph 
tolls on outgoing matter, $704,000; tolls on incoming 
matter, specials, etc., $152,000; foreign cables, $182,000; 
contracts with foreign agencies, $15,000; general ex- 
penses, including rents, telephones, typewriters, legal 
expenses, etc., $174,000; total, $2,258,000. 

To meet this, each member is assessed a sum which is 
paid weekly in advance. In making up these assess- 
ments, an equitable system is followed, which provides 
that the heaviest tax shall fall upon the larger papers. 

The Association is several times greater in magnitude 
and in the importance of its work than any other in- 
stitution for distributing news. It serves, for instance, 

* These are the figures for the year 1904. For the year ending 
December 31, 1917, the grand total of expense of The Associated Press 
was $3,396,796.50. The principal items were: Salaries, $1,720,644; 
rental of leased wires and tolls on outgoing report, $766,690; incoming 
news (domestic), $128,950; foreign service, $564,928; general expenses, 
$173,882. 

102 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

all but six of the morning daily newspapers of the 
country which take telegraphic service. It furnishes 
more than one-half of all the news the papers print, and 
its despatches appear in journals having an aggregate 
issue of over fifteen and one-half million copies a day. 
If the recognized formula of three readers for each copy 
be accepted, it is evident that its telegrams are read by 
more than one-half the people of the nation. How wide 
is the influence exerted by this service in a land where 
readers demand the facts only and form their own judg- 
ment, no one may estimate. The Association certainly 
plays a most important part in our national life. Yet, 
if one may judge from inquiries that come to the General 
Office, it is little understood either by editors or readers. 

Annually the members gather in general convention 
in New York and elect a Board of Directors of fifteen 
members. By common consent, the members of this 
board are chosen from different parts of the country, so 
that each important division is represented. They are 
trained newspaper men who bring to the discharge of 
their duties an intimate knowledge of the business and 
a high sense of responsibility. The Board of Directors in 
turn elect a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary 
and General Manager, an Assistant Secretary and Assist- 
ant General Manager, and a Treasurer, and designate 
from their own number five members to serve as an 
Executive Committee. 

The world at large is divided, for the purpose of news- 
gathering, among four great agencies. The Reuter Tele- 
gram Company, Ltd., of London, gathers and distributes 
news in Great Britain and all her colonies, China, Japan, 
and Egypt. The Continental Telegraphen Compagnie of 
Berlin, popularly known as the Wolff Agency, performs 
a like office in the Teutonic, Slav, and Scandinavian 
countries; and the Agence Havas of Paris operates in 
the Latin nations. The field of The Associated Press 
includes the United States, the Hawaiian Islands, the 
Philippines, and Central America, as well as the islands 

103 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

of the Caribbean Sea. Each of these agencies has a 
representative in the offices of the others. Thus the 
Associated Press bureau in London adjoins the Reuter 
offices. The telegrams to the Reuter company are 
written on manifold sheets by the telegraph and cable 
companies, and copies are served simultaneously to The 
Associated Press bureau, the Wolff representative, the 
Havas men, and the Reuter people. A like arrangement 
obtains in Paris, Berlin, and New York, so that in each 
of these cities the whole panorama of the day's happen- 
ings passes under the eyes of representatives of each of 
the four agencies. 

But the scheme is much more elaborate than even 
this arrangement would indicate. Operating as trib- 
utary to the great agencies are a host of minor agencies 
— virtually one such smaller agency for each of the na- 
tions of importance. Thus in Italy the Stefani Agency, 
with headquarters in Rome, gathers and distributes the 
news of Italy. It is the official agency, and to it the 
authorities give exclusively all governmental informa- 
tion. It is controlled by Italians, but a large minor- 
ity of its shares are owned by the Agence Havas of 
Paris, and it operates in close alliance with the latter 
organization. 

Thus, if a fire should break out in Milan, the Secolo, 
the leading newspaper of that city, would instantly 
telegraph a report of it to the Stefani Agency at Rome. 
Thence it would be telegraphed to all of the other 
Italian papers, and copies of the SecoWs message would 
also be handed to the representatives, in the Stefani 
headquarters, of the Reuter, Wolff, Havas, and the 
Associated Press agencies. 

In like fashion, if the fire should happen in Chicago, 
The Associated Press would receive its report, transmit it 
to the American papers, and furnish copies to the repre- 
sentatives of the foreign agencies stationed in the New 
York office of The Associated Press. 

Of the minor agencies the most important are the 

104 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Fabri Agency of Madrid, the Norsky Agency of Chris- 
tiania, the Swiss Agency of Bern, the Svensky Agency 
of Stockholm, the Correspondenz Bureau of Vienna, the 
Commercial Agency of St. Petersburg, and the Agence 
Balcanique of Sofia. 

But The Associated Press is not content to depend 
wholly upon these official agencies. It maintains its 
own bureaus in all the important capitals, and reports 
the more prominent events by its own men, who are 
Americans and familiar with American newspaper 
methods. These foreign representatives are drawn from 
the ablest men in the service, and the offices they fill are 
obviously of great responsibility. They must be quali- 
fied by long training in the journalistic profession, by 
familiarity with a number of languages, and by a presence 
and a bearing which will enable them to mingle with men 
of the highest station in the countries to which they are 
accredited. 

Such are the means used for gathering foreign news. 
For the exchange of domestic news the methods are not 
very different. Each of the seven hundred newspapers 
whose proprietors are members of the Association is 
obliged to give the representative of The Associated 
Press free access to its news as soon as received. 
Many times a day the Associated Press man calls 
at every newspaper office in the large cities and is 
given the latest local news. If it is sufficiently im- 
portant, he instantly puts it upon the leased wires, 
and in a few seconds it is in the hands of hundreds 
of telegraph editors throughout the country. 

For the purpose of administration the country is 
divided into four grand divisions, each controlled by a 
Superintendent acting under the direction of the General 
Manager. The Association leases thirty-five thousand 
miles of telegraph wire, and expends over seven thousand 
dollars a day in its work. These leased wires, which are 
worked by its own operators, stretch from Halifax, by 
way of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 

105 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Washington, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, 
St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, and Salt Lake, to San 
Francisco, San Diego, and Seattle; they radiate from 
New York through Albany, Syracuse, and Rochester to 
Buffalo ; from Washington through the leading Southern 
cities to Atlanta; from Chicago south, by way of 
Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Louisville, to Nashville, 
Atlanta, and New Orleans, as well as to Memphis, San 
Antonio, and the City of Mexico; and from Chicago 
north, by way of Milwaukee, to St. Paul and Duluth. 
They also extend from Philadelphia through the interior 
of Pennsylvania, and touch, by an extension from Kansas 
City, the interior cities of Nebraska and Iowa on the 
north, and Kansas and Oklahoma on the south. Thus 
every city of consequence is reached by the wire system 
of The Associated Press. 

Three of these leased wires are operated between New 
York and Chicago at night and two by day. The 
volume of Associated Press report thus served daily to a 
morning newspaper in Philadelphia or Baltimore, through 
which cities the three night wires are extended, exceeds 
sixty thousand words, or forty ordinary columns. The 
telegraph operators are men of exceptional skill, and 
receive higher salaries than are paid by the telegraph or 
railway companies. To expedite their work, they use 
automatic sending-machines, which greatly exceed hand 
transmission in speed, and employ a system of abbrevia- 
tions which can be sent with surprising rapidity. The 
receiving operators take the letters by sound and write 
them upon a typewriter, and since no one is able to 
manipulate a Morse key as swiftly as he can operate a 
typewriter, there is a constant effort to hasten the send- 
ing in order to keep pace with the ability of the receiver. 
The following example will illustrate the system of ab- 
breviation. A message is sent thus: 

t scotus tdy dcdd 5 pw f potus dz n xtd to t 
pips, ogt all pst cgsl xgn q sj is uxl. 
106 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

And it is rendered thus by the receiving operator : 

The Supreme Court of the United States to-day decided that the 
power of the President of the United States does not extend to the 
Philippines, on the ground that all past Congressional legislation 
on the subject is unconstitutional. 

In the larger cities, where many copies of the mes- 
sages are required, a sheet which has been immersed in 
wax is used in the typewriter. When written upon it 
forms a stencil, which is placed upon a rotary cyclograph 
operated by an electric motor, and as many as three 
hundred copies of the message may be reproduced in a 
minute. One of these is thrust into an envelope bearing 
the printed address of a newspaper and shot through a 
pneumatic tube to the desk of the waiting telegraph 
editor in the newspaper office. Even this almost in- 
stantaneous method of delivery is too slow, however, 
for news of a sensational character. A bulletin wire 
connects the Associated Press office with every evening 
newspaper in New York, and the bulletins are flashed 
over it by operators of the highest skill, in emergencies. 
When the result of a great race arrives, the receiving 
operator shouts the news through a megaphone, and every 
sending operator in the room flashes it over his circuit. 

A storm is a serious thing, and there is hardly a day 
in the year which is free from a storm somewhere in the 
vast territory covered by these leased wires. The ex- 
pedients then resorted to are often interesting. During 
the great blizzard of 1888, in which Senator Roscoe 
Conkling lost his life, all communication was cut off 
between New York and Boston, and messages were sent 
from New York by cable to London, thence back to 
Canso on the Nova Scotian coast, and from Canso to 
Boston. In 1902 every wire between Boston and Phila- 
delphia went down, and then special messengers were 
sent by train with the Associated Press telegrams. 
Last winter the wires between New York and Utica 
were swept away along the Hudson River. Then mes- 

107 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

sages were transmitted by way of Baltimore to Chicago, 
and back to Utica by way of Buffalo. 

Thus, with its alliances with the great foreign agencies 
covering every point of the habitable globe, with its own 
American representatives in every important foreign 
city, with special commissioners to report events of great 
moment, with the correspondents and reporters of virtu- 
ally all of the newspapers of the world laid under con- 
tribution, and with official recognition in a number of 
countries, The Associated Press is able to comb the 
earth for every happening of interest, and to present 
it to the newspaper reader with almost incredible speed. 



II 
THE METHOD OF OPERATION* 

WITH the accession of Mr. William Henry Smith 
to the office of General Manager of The Associated 
Press, less than twenty-five years ago, there came a 
change for the better in the administration. The Western 
papers which had been admitted to a share in the man- 
agement demanded more enterprise and a report of more 
varied character. The policy of limiting the field to 
''routine news" — sport, markets, shipping, etc. — was 
abandoned, and the institution began to show evidences 
of real journalistic life and ability. It startled the news- 
paper world by occasionally offering exclusive and well- 
written items of general interest. When Mr. Blaine was 
closing what promised to be a successful political cam- 
paign in 1884, it was an Associated Press man who shat- 
tered all precedents, as well as the candidate's hopes, by 
reporting Dr. Burchard's disastrous "Rum, Roman- 
ism, and Rebellion" speech. This was then an unheard- 
of display of enterprise. 

* From The Century Magazine, July, 1905. Reprinted here with the 
courteous permission of The Century Company. 

108 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Two years later the same reporter* scored again. He 
had been sent to Mount McGregor with many others to 
report General Grant's last illness. He was shrewd 
enough to arrange in advance with the doctor for prompt 
information of the final event. A system of signals had 
been agreed upon, and when, one day, the doctor saun- 
tered out upon the veranda of the Drexel cottage and 
drew a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his 
hands, the reporter knew that the General was dead and 
telegraphed the fact throughout the world. For months 
afterward it was spoken of with wonder as The Asso- 
ciated Press "scoop." 

A MASTERPIECE OF REPORTING 

Then came the Samoan disaster, in 1885, and with it 
a disclosure that an Associated Press man might not 
only be capable of securing exclusive news, but might 
also be able to write it in a creditable way. Mr. John 
P. Dunning of the San Francisco bureau happened to be 
in Apia when the great storm broke over the islands. 
In the roadstead were anchored three American war- 
vessels, the Trenton, Nipsic, and Vandalia; three Ger- 
man war-ships, the Adler, Olga, and Eber; and the 
British cruiser Calliope. All of the American and German 
ships were driven upon the coral reefs and destroyed, 
involving the loss of one hundred and fifty lives. The 
Calliope, a more modern vessel with superior engines, 
was able to escape. As she pushed her way into the heavy 
sea, in the teeth of the hurricane, the jackies of the 
Trenton " dressed ship," while her band played the 
British national anthem. It was a profoundly tragic 
salutation from those about to die. 

Mr. Dunning' s graphic story, which will long be ac- 
cepted as a masterpiece of descriptive literature, was 
mailed to San Francisco, and a month later was published 
by the newspapers of The Associated Press. It was a 

* This was the late Frank W. Mack. 
109 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

revelation to those who had long believed the organiza- 
tion incapable of producing anything more exciting than 
a market quotation. It was also an inspiration to those 
who were to succeed Mr. Smith in the administration of 
the business. It revealed the possibilities in store for 
the Association. 

In the earlier days telegraphic facilities were so lim- 
ited and the cost of messages was so great that it was 
necessary to report everything in the briefest form. It 
was enough that the facts were disclosed, and little heed 
was paid to the manner of presentation. Moreover, a 
great majority of those writing the despatches were tele- 
graph operators, destitute of literary training. 

The advantages of an Associated Press newspaper were 
very great. It was scarcely possible for a competitor to 
make headway against the obstacles which he was com- 
pelled to face. Not only was the burden of expense 
enormous, but the telegraph company which was in 
close alliance with the Association frequently delayed his 
service, or refused to transmit it at any price. It fol- 
lowed that the quantity of news which an editor was 
able to furnish his readers became the measure of his 
enterprise and ability. It was his proudest boast that 
his paper printed "all the news." James Gordon Ben- 
nett, Sr., of the New York Herald, and Wilbur F. Storey 
of the Chicago Times, set the pace, and won much fame 
by lavish expenditures for telegrams, which were often 
badly written. 

A NEW STANDARD OF NEWS-GATHERING 

As new cables were laid, and land wires were extended, 
and rival telegraph companies appeared, the cost of 
messages was reduced, and there came a demand for 
better writing and better editing. The hour for selection 
in news had arrived. It was obvious that no editor could 
any longer print all the information offered him, and it 
was equally evident that the reader, whose range of 

no 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

vision had been surprisingly widened by the modern 
means of communication, had neither time nor inclina- 
tion to read it all. Editors who could and would edit 
were required. Newspapers presenting a carefully pre- 
pared perspective of the day's history of the world were 
needed. 

Thus was clearly outlined the path along which The 
Associated Press must travel. Its resources were un- 
limited. Through its foreign alliances, it had a repre- 
sentative at every point of interest abroad; and, through 
its own membership, it was able to cover every part of 
the United States. It was only necessary to organize, 
educate, and utilize these forces. Strong men, specially 
trained for the work in hand, must be chosen, and sta- 
tioned at strategic points. The ordinary correspondent 
would not do ; indeed, as a rule, he of all men was least 
fitted for Associated Press work. Writing for a single 
newspaper, he might follow the editorial bias of his 
journal; and even though he was inexact, his statements 
were likely to pass unchallenged. In writing for The As- 
sociated Press any departure from strict accuracy and 
impartiality was certain to be discovered. 

But the strategic points were not the only ones to be 
looked after. News of the highest importance, requiring 
for its proper treatment the best literary skill, was sure 
to develop in the most remote quarters. To find men in 
these out-of-the-way spots, imbued with the American 
idea of journalistic enterprise, and qualified to see an 
event in its proper proportions and to describe it ade- 
quately and vividly, was a serious undertaking. Yet the 
thing must be done, if the ideal service was to be reached. 

THE BEST REPORTERS FOUND IN SMALL COMMUNITIES 

Within the limits of the United States the task was 
a comparatively easy one. Here men of the required 
character were obtainable. It was only necessary to 
select them with care and to drill them to promptness, 

in 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

scrupulous accuracy, impartiality, and a graphic style. 
So wide-spread is American education that it was soon 
discovered that the best men could usually be found in 
the villages and the smaller cities. They were more sin- 
cere, better informed, and less "bumptious" than the 
journalistic Gascons so frequently employed on the 
metropolitan press. 

For the foreign field, greater obstacles were presented. 
Our methods were not European methods, and the 
Europeans were not news-mad peoples. At the best, 
the contributions of any news-agency to the columns of 
any foreign newspaper were exceedingly limited and 
prosaic. This is particularly true upon the Continent, 
where the journals devote themselves chiefly to well- 
written political leaders and feuilleions, and where news 
has a distinctly secondary place. 

I took up the subject with the chiefs of the 
foreign agencies. Fortunately, in Baron Herbert de 
Reuter, head of the great company which bears 
his name, I found a sympathetic ally. During 
twelve years of intimate intercourse with him he has 
shown at all times journalistic qualities of a very high 
order. A man of brilliant intellect, scholarly, modest, 
having a keen sense of the immense responsibility of his 
office, but of nervous temperament and tireless energy, 
he has shared every impulse to reach a higher level of 
excellence in the service. With his co-operation and 
that of Dr. Mantler, chief of the German agency, 
a zealous and efficient manager, but lacking the en- 
couragement and stimulus of a news-reading and news- 
demanding public, substantial progress was made. The 
object desired was a correct perspective of the daily 
history of the world. 

The end could not be reached at a single bound. 
Long-continued effort and the exercise of no small de- 
gree of patience were necessary. What has been done 
may perhaps best be illustrated by a few examples. 
When Mr. Chamberlain resigned from Mr. Balfour's 

112 




Vice-Presidents of The Associated Press 
1917-1918 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

ministry two years ago it was The Associated Press in 
London which gave this news to the world; and when 
the Alaskan Commission was summoned to meet in 
London in the autumn of 1903 the keenest interest in its 
deliberations was manifested in both countries, and the 
efforts of The Associated Press were naturally bent on 
keeping its readers fully informed of the deliberations of 
the commission. A few minutes after the final decision 
of the commission was reached, one Saturday evening, it 
had been flashed across the Atlantic. No official con- 
firmation of this fact was obtainable in England until 
the meeting of the commission on Monday; but so 
implicit was the confidence felt in the news which had 
been published in America by The Associated Press 
that the English papers accepted its statements as true. 

THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT McKINLEY 

On the afternoon of September 6, 1901, worn out by 
a long period of exacting labor, I set out for Philadelphia, 
with the purpose of spending a few days at Atlantic City. 
When I reached the Broad Street Station in the Quaker 
City I was startled by a number of policemen crying my 
name. I stepped up to one, who pointed to a boy with 
an urgent message for me. President McKinley had been 
shot at Buffalo, and my presence was required at our 
Philadelphia office at once. A message had been sent 
to me at Trenton, but my train had left the station 
precisely two minutes ahead of its arrival. Handing 
my baggage to a hotel porter, I jumped into a cab and 
dashed away to our office. I remained there until dawn 
of the following morning. 

The opening pages of the story of the assassination 
were badly written, and I ordered a substitute prepared. 
An inexperienced reporter stood beside President McKin- 
ley in the Music Hall at Buffalo when Czolgosz fired the 
fatal shot. He seized a neighboring telephone and noti- 
fied our Buffalo correspondent, and then pulled out the 
8 113 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

wires, in order to render the telephone a wreck, so that 
it was a full half -hour before any additional details could 
be secured. 

I ordered competent men and expert telegraph opera- 
tors from Washington, Albany, New York, and Boston 
to hurry to Buffalo by the fastest trains. All that night 
the Buffalo office was pouring forth a hastily written, but 
faithful and complete account of the tragedy, and by 
daybreak a relief force was on the ground. Day by day, 
through the long vigil while the President's life hung in 
the balance, each incident was truthfully and graphically 
reported. In the closing hours of the great tragedy false 
reports of the President's death were circulated for the 
purpose of influencing the stock-market, and, to coun- 
teract them, Secretary Cortelyou wrote frequent signed 
statements, giving the facts to The Associated Press. 

THE MARTINIQUE DISASTER 

On the night of May 3, 1902, a brief telegram from St. 
Thomas, Danish West Indies, reported that Mont Pelee, 
the volcano on the island of Martinique, was in eruption, 
and that the town of St. Pierre was enveloped in a fog 
and covered with ashes an inch deep. Cable communica- 
tion was cut off. The following morning I set about 
securing the facts. We had two correspondents on the 
island, one at St. Pierre and the other at Fort de France, 
nine miles away; but clearly neither of these could be 
reached. 

Fortunately, investigation disclosed that an old friend, 
a talented newspaper man, was the United States consul 
at Guadeloupe, an island only twelve hours distant. I 
instantly appealed to the State Department at Washing- 
ton to give him a leave of absence, and, when this was 
granted, I cabled him to charter a boat and go to St. 
Pierre at once, and secure and transmit an adequate 
report. The Associated Press men at St. Vincent, 
St. Thomas, Porto Rico, Barbados, Trinidad, and St. 

114 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Lucia were instructed to hurry forward any information 
that might reach them, and to endeavor to get to 
Martinique by any available means. St. Thomas alone 
was able to respond with a short telegram, three days 
later, announcing the destruction of the Martinique 
sugar-factories, which were only two miles distant from 
St. Pierre. The despatch also reported the loss of one 
hundred and fifty lives, and the existence of a panic at 
St. Pierre because of the condition of the volcano, 
which was now in full eruption and threatening every- 
thing on the island. Mr. Ayme, the consul at Guade- 
loupe, found difficulty in chartering a boat, but finally 
succeeded, and, after a thrilling and dangerous night 
run through a thick cloud of falling ashes and cinders, 
arrived before the ill-fated city. The appalling charac- 
ter of the catastrophe was then disclosed. Thirty 
thousand people, the population of the town, had been 
buried under a mass of hot ashes ; one single human being 
had escaped. It was enough to make the stoutest heart 
grow faint. 

But Ayme was a trained reporter, inured by long 
experience to trying scenes ; and he set to work promptly 
to meet the responsibility which had been laid upon 
him. Our St. Pierre man had gone to his death on the 
common pyre, but Mr. Ivanes, the Associated Press 
correspondent at Fort de France, survived. With him 
Mr. Ayme joined effort, and, with great courage and 
at serious risk, they went over the blazing field and 
gathered the gruesome details of the disaster. Then 
Mr. Ayme wrote his story, returned to the cable-station 
at Guadeloupe, and sent it. It was a splendid piece of 
work, worthy of the younger Pliny, whose story of a 
like calamity at Pompeii has come down to us through 
two thousand years. It filled a page of the American 
newspapers on the morning of May n, and was tele- 
graphed to Europe. It was the first adequate account 
given to the world. 

Mr. Ayme returned to Martinique and spent three 

115 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

weeks in further investigation, leaving his post of duty- 
only when the last shred of information had been ob- 
tained and transmitted. As a result of his terrible 
experience, his health was impaired, and, although he 
was given a prolonged leave of absence, he has never 
recovered. It cost The Associated Press over $30,000 to 
report this event. 

THE DEATH OF POPE LEO XIII. 

The illness and death of the late Pope constituted 
another event which called for news-gathering ability of 
a high order. Preparations had been made long in ad- 
vance. Conferences were held with the Italian officials 
and with the authorities at the Vatican, all looking to 
the establishment of relations of such intimacy as to 
guarantee us the news. We had been notified by the 
Italian Minister of Telegraphs that, because of the 
strained relations existing between his Government and 
the papal court, he should forbid the transmission of any 
telegrams announcing the Pope's death for two hours 
after the fatal moment, in order that Cardinal Rampolla 
might first notify the papal representatives in foreign 
countries. This was done as a gracious act of courtesy 
to the Church. 

To meet the emergency, we arranged a code message 
to be sent by all cable-lines, which should be addressed, 
not to The Associated Press, but to the General Manager 
in person, and should read: "Number of missing bond, 

. (Signed) Montenore." This bore on its face 

no reference to the death of the Pontiff, and would be 
transmitted. The blank was to be filled with the hour 
and moment of the Pope's death, reversed. That is, if 
he died at 2:53, the message would read: "Melstone, 
New York. Number of missing bond, 352. (Signed) 
Montenore." The object of reversing the figures was, 
of course, to prevent a guess that it was a deception in 
order to convey the news. If the hour had been properly 

116 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

written, they might have suspected the purport of the 
message. 

When, finally, the Pope died, although his bed was 
completely surrounded by burning candles, an attendant 
hurried from the room into an anteroom and called for 
a candle to pass before the lips of the dying man, to 
determine whether he still breathed. This was the signal 
for another attache, who stepped to the telephone and 
announced to our correspondent, two miles away, that 
the Pope was dead. Unfortunately, the hour of his 
death was four minutes past four, so that whichever way 
it was written, whether directly or the reverse, it was 404. 

Nevertheless, the figures were inserted in the blank 
in the bulletin which had been prepared, it was filed 
with the telegraph company, and it came through to 
New York in exactly nine minutes from the moment 
of death. It was relayed at Havre, and again at the ter- 
minal of the French Cable Company in New York, 
whence it came to our office on a short wire. The re- 
ceiving operator there shouted the news to the entire 
operating-room of The Associated Press, and every man 
on every key on every circuit out of New York flashed 
the announcement that the Pope had died at four min- 
utes past four; so that the fact was known in San Fran- 
cisco within eleven minutes after its actual occurrence. 

The Reuter, Havas, and Wolf! agents located in our 
office in New York retransmitted the announcement to 
London, Paris, and Berlin, giving those cities their 
first news of the event. A comparison of the report of 
the London Times with that of any morning paper in 
the United States on the day following the death of the 
Pope would show that, both as to quantity and quality, 
our report was vastly superior. The London Times had 
a column and a half ; the New York Times had a page of 
the graphic story of the scenes in and about the Vatican. 
The New York Times story was ours. This was so nota- 
ble an event that it occasioned comment throughout 
the world. 

117 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

During the illness of the Pope I ordered a number of 
the best men from our London, Paris, and Vienna offices 
to Rome to assist our resident men. The advantage of 
such an arrangement was that the London men were in 
close touch with Church dignitaries of England, while 
our representatives from France and Vienna had their 
immediate circle of acquaintances among the Church 
dignitaries of those countries. The result was that 
Mr. Cortesi, the chief of our Rome office, was perfectly 
familiar with the local surroundings and was on intimate 
terms with Drs. Lapponi and Mazzoni of the Vatican 
as well as with the other resident officials of the Church, 
and was always able to command attention from them. 
Besides, he had not only the advantage of the assistance 
of trained men from our other European offices, but he 
had also the advantage of their acquaintance. We were 
enabled day by day to present an extraordinary picture 
of the scenes at the Vatican, and day by day the bulletins 
upon the condition of the Holy Father were transmitted 
with amazing rapidity. The death-bed scenes at Buffalo, 
when President McKinley was lying ill at the Milburn 
House, were reported with no greater degree of prompt- 
ness and no greater detail. The funeral scenes were also 
covered in a remarkably ample way and with astounding 
rapidity. Then came the conclave for the election of a 
new Pope. It was to be secret, and every effort was made 
to prevent its proceedings from becoming public. A 
brick wall was constructed about the hall to prevent any 
one having access to it. But, to the amazement of every 
one, The Associated Press had a daily report of all that 
happened. One of the members of the Noble Guard 
was an Associated Press man. Knowing the devotion 
of the average Italian for the dove, he took with him 
into the conclave chamber his pet dove, which was a 
homing pigeon trained to go to our office. But Cardinal 
Rampolla could not be deceived; he ordered the pigeon 
killed. Other plans, however, were more successful. 
Laundry lists sent out with the soiled linen of a cardinal, 

118 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

and a physician's prescriptions sent to a pharmacy, 
proved to be code messages which were deciphered in 
our office. We were enabled not only to give a complete 
and accurate story of the happenings within the con- 
clave chamber, but we announced the election of the 
new Pope, which occurred about n a.m. in Rome, so 
promptly that, owing to the difference in time, it was 
printed in the morning papers of San Francisco of that 
day. We were also enabled to send the announcement 
back to Europe before it was received from Rome direct, 
and it was our message that was printed in all the 
European capitals. The Italian authorities did not inter- 
fere with these messages. 

THE USE OF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 

Of late years the international yacht races off Sandy 
Hook have, as a rule, been reported by wireless telegra- 
phy. Stations have been erected on Long Island and 
on the coast of New Jersey, and a fast-going yacht, 
equipped with Marconi apparatus, has followed the 
racers. A running story, transmitted through the air 
to the coast, has been instantly relayed by land wires to 
the main office of the Association in New York, and 
thence distributed over the country. Such a report of 
the contest costs over $25,000. 

HOW NATIONAL CONVENTIONS ARE REPORTED 

"Presidential years" are always trying ones for the 
management. In 1896 the friends of Speaker Reed were 
incensed because we were unable to see that a majority 
of the delegates to the Republican National Convention 
were Reed men. Not that I think they really believed 
this; but everything is accounted fair in the game of 
politics, and they thought it would help their cause if 
The Associated Press would announce each delegation, 
on its selection, as for Reed. They appealed to me ; but 

119 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

of course I could not misstate the facts, and they took 
great umbrage. The St. Louis Convention, when it 
assembled, verified our declarations, for Mr. Reed's vote 
was insignificant. 

The national conventions are our first care. Prepara- 
tions begin months before they assemble. Rooms are 
engaged at all the leading hotels, so that Associated 
Press men may be in touch with every delegation. The 
plans of the convention hall are examined, and arrange- 
ments are made for operating-room and seats. The 
wires of the Association are carried into the building, and 
a work-room is usually located beneath the platform of 
the presiding officer. A private passage is cut, connecting 
this work-room with the reporters' chairs, which are 
placed directly in front of the stand occupied by speak- 
ers, and inclosed by a rail to prevent interference 
from the surging masses certain to congregate in the 
neighborhood. 

A week before the convention opens, a number of 
Associated Press men are on the ground to report the 
assembling of the delegates, to sound them as to their 
plans and preferences, and to indicate the trend of the 
.gathering in their despatches as well as they may. The 
National Committee holds its meeting in advance of 
the convention, decides upon a roll of members, and 
names a presiding officer. All this is significant, and 
is often equivalent to a determination of the party 
candidates. 

Of the convention itself, The Associated Press makes 
three distinct reports. A reporter sits in the hall and dic- 
tates to an operator, who sends out bulletins. These fol- 
low the events instantly, are necessarily very brief, and 
are often used by the newspapers to post on bulletin- 
boards. There is also a graphic running story of the pro- 
ceedings. This is written by three men, seated together, 
each writing for ten minutes and then resting twenty. 
The copy is hastily edited by a fourth man, so that it 
may harmonize. This report is usually printed by after- 

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

noon papers. Finally there is a verbatim report, which 
is printed by the large metropolitan dailies. A corps of 
expert stenographers, who take turns in the work, are 
employed. As a delegate rises in any part of the hall, 
one of these stenographers dashes to his side and reports 
his utterances. He then rushes to the work-room and 
dictates his notes to a rapid typewriter, while another 
stenographer replaces him upon the convention floor. 
The nominating speeches are usually furnished by their 
authors weeks in advance, and are in type in the news- 
paper offices awaiting their delivery and release. 

The men who report these conventions are drawn 
from all the principal offices of The Associated Press. 
Coming from different parts of the country, they are 
personally acquainted with a large majority of the dele- 
gates. There is a close division of labor — certain men are 
assigned to write bulletins; others to do descriptive 
work; still others to prepare introductory summaries; 
a number to watch and report the proceedings of secret 
committees; and a force of "scouts" are kept in close 
touch with the party leaders, and learn of projects the 
instant that they begin to mature. Out of it all comes a 
service which puts the newspaper reader of the country 
in instant and constant possession of every developing 
fact and gives him a pen-picture of every scene. Indeed, 
he has a better grasp of the situation than if he were 
present in the convention hall. 

When the candidates are named and the platforms 
adopted the campaign opens, and for several months The 
Associated Press faces steadily increasing responsibilities. 
The greatest care is observed to maintain an attitude of 
strict impartiality, and yet to miss no fact of interest. 
If a candidate, or one of the great party leaders, makes 
a "stumping journey," stenographers and descriptive 
writers must accompany him. While Mr. Bryan was 
"on tour," it was his practice to speak hurriedly from 
the rear platform of his train, and instantly to leave for 
the next appointment. While he was speaking the Asso- 

121 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

dated Press stenographer was taking notes. When the 
train started, these notes were dictated to a typewriter, 
and at the next stopping-point were handed over to a 
waiting local Associated Press man, who put the speech 
on the telegraph wires. In the general offices records are 
kept of the number of words sent out, so that at the end 
of the campaign the volume of Republican and Demo- 
cratic speeches reported is expected to balance. 

Finally, the work of Election Day is mapped out in 
advance with scrupulous care, and each correspondent 
in the country has definite instructions as to the part 
he is to play. On Election Day brief bulletins on the con- 
dition of the weather in every part of the nation, and on 
the character of the voting, are furnished to the after- 
noon papers. The moment the polls close, the counting 
begins. Associated Press men everywhere are gathering 
precinct returns and hurrying them to county head- 
quarters, where they are hastily added, and the totals 
for the county on Presidential electors are wired to the 
State headquarters of the Association. The forces of men 
at these general offices are augmented by the employ- 
ment of expert accountants and adding-machines from 
the local banks, and the labor is so subdivided that last 
year the result of the contest was announced by eight 
o'clock in the evening, and at midnight a return, virtually 
accurate, of the majority in every State was presented 
to the newspapers. It was the first occasion on which 
the result of an American general election was trans- 
mitted to Europe in time to appear in the London morn- 
ing papers of the day succeeding the election. 

GUARANTY OF IMPARTIALITY 

If I were not what Mr. Gladstone once called "an old 
parliamentary hand," if I had not given and taken the 
buffets of aggressive American journalism for many 
years, and if Heaven had not blessed me with a certain 
measure of the saving grace of humor, I think I should 

122 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

have been sent to an early grave by the unreasonable 
and unfair attacks made upon my administration of the 
Associated Press news service. In the exciting Presi- 
dential campaign of 1896, Senator Jones, the Democratic 
national chairman, openly charged me with favoring the 
Republicans; while Mr. Hanna, his opponent, was at 
the point of breaking a long-time personal friendship 
because he regarded me as distinctly ''pro-Bryan." The 
truth is, both men had lost their balance; neither was 
capable of a judicial view; each wanted, not an impar- 
tial service, but one which would help his side. Fortu- 
nately, the candidates preserved a better poise than their 
lieutenants. At the close of the campaign both Bryan 
and McKinley wrote me that they were impressed with 
the impartiality which we had observed. 

A former Senator of New York controlled a paper at 
Albany and named one of his secretaries as its editor. 
Then trouble began to brew. Day after day I was plied 
with letters charging me with unfairness. Every time we 
reported a speech of President Roosevelt's I was accused 
of favoring the Republicans, while the failure to chronicle 
the result of an insignificant ward caucus in New Jersey 
was clear evidence that I was inimical to the Democrats. 
I patiently investigated each complaint, and explained 
that there were limitations upon the volume of our ser- 
vice ; that the utterances of any incumbent of the Presi- 
dential office must properly be reported, while the result 
of a ward caucus must be ignored, if we were to give any 
heed to their relative news values. Still the young man 
was not happy, and, when I had done all that reason or 
courtesy required, I notified the Senator, who had been 
inspiring the criticisms, that "I must decline to walk the 
floor with his infant any longer. ' ' That ended the matter. 

During a Congressional inquiry, a number of trade- 
unionists appeared and testified for days in denunciation 
of The Associated Press, because they conceived it to be 
unfriendly to their cause. More recently, but with 
equal injustice, the secretary of the Citizens' Industrial 

123 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Association has been pelting me with letters charging 
our Association with favoring organized labor. 

When we reported the death of the late Pope in a man- 
ner befitting his exalted station, a number of Methodist 
newspapers gravely asserted that I was a Catholic, or 
controlled by Vatican influences, although, as a matter 
of fact, my father was a Methodist clergyman and my 
mother the grandniece of a coadjutor of John Wesley. 
On the other hand, not long since, when The Associated 
Press reported the Marquise des Monstiers's renunciation 
of the Catholic faith, certain Catholic newspapers flew 
into a rage and asserted that I was an anti-Catholic bigot. 

The more frequent criticisms, however, result from 
want of knowledge of the true mission of the organization. 
Many persons, unfamiliar with newspaper methods, mis- 
take special telegrams for Associated Press service, and 
hold us to an undeserved responsibility. Many others, 
having "axes to grind," and quite willing to pay for the 
grinding, find it difficult to believe that not only does the 
Association do no grinding, but by the very nature of its 
methods such grinding is made impossible. The man who 
would pay The Associated Press for "booming" his proj- 
ect would be throwing his money away. Any man in 
the service of the Association, from the General Manager 
to the humblest employee, who should attempt to 
"boom" a project would be instantly discovered, dis- 
graced, and dismissed. 

The four years' struggle with The United Press was 
waged over this principle. Victor F. Lawson of the Chi- 
cago Daily News, Charles W. Knapp of the St. Louis 
Republic, Frederick Driscoll of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, 
and those associated with them in that contest, deserve 
the lasting gratitude of the American people for having 
established, at a vast cost of time, labor, and money, 
a method of news-gathering and distribution free from a 
chance of contamination. Seven hundred newspapers, 
representing every conceivable view of every public 
question, sit in judgment upon the Associated Press 

124 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

despatches. A representative of each of these papers has 
a vote in the election of the management. Every editor 
is jealously watching every line of the report. It must 
be obvious that any serious departure from an honest 
and impartial service would arouse a storm of indignation 
which would overwhelm any administration. 



Ill 
ITS GENERAL FOREIGN SERVICE* 

STUDENTS of American history have long observed 
that although we established our political inde- 
pendence by the wars of 1776 and 181 2, our literary 
and social dependence upon England has never been 
fully broken. Our cousins oversea, in the persons of 
such recognized censors as Girford of the Quarterly 
Review, sneered at our novelists ; Tom Moore condemned 
our democratic institutions; and Charles Dickens ac- 
cused us of bad manners. We, on the other hand, had 
not been free from blame. We had taught our children 
a history of England which related little more of her 
than the fact that she had fought us in two wars, and 
we made no account of her splendid record in the develop- 
ment of the^world's best civilization. All of these things 
made for unfriendly relations. Yet, all the while, we 
suffered London to dictate our opinion respecting every 
other nation. From its beginning The Associated Press 
had only one foreign agency, and that was located in 
the British metropolis. It was from a British news- 
agency 6r"through the English special despatches that 
we derived all our European news. True, there were in- 
teresting letters from the Continental capitals; but, long 
before their arrival or publication, the story of any 
important event had been told from London and had 

* From The Century Magazine, April, 1905. Reprinted here with 
the courteous permission of The Century Company. 

125 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

made its impress upon the American mind — an impress 
which it was not easy to correct. The fact that the 
British views were presented in the English language 
obviously made them easier of access and gave them 
wider currency in this country. Thus British opinion, 
in large measure, became our opinion. 

After the Spanish War of 1898 our vision was sud- 
denly and remarkably widened. Then the ambassadors 
from the Continental nations at Washington began to 
urge that the time had come for the United States to 
look at their peoples through American eyes. M. Jules 
Cambon, the French ambassador, was particularly per- 
turbed because all of the news respecting France came 
through London and took on a British nuance. It did 
not follow that such reports were inaccurate, but they 
were written to supply what the English people were 
presumed to want; and the London point of view, as 
Lowell said, is : 

Whut's good's all English; all thet isn't ain't. 

There was evidence of a strong desire on the part of 
European powers for pleasant relations with the United 
States ; they were very anxious that The Associated Press 
should name its own competent correspondents, who 
should reside in the different Continental capitals of 
Europe and should study each country as Americans. 
An unkind phrase respecting the United States in an 
altogether inconsequential German paper, when printed 
in the Associated Press despatches in this country, was 
likely to cause great friction. Although the character 
of the paper was unknown, it was assumed to voice 
German sentiment because it was a German paper. 
This led to a distinct protest on the part of our German- 
American newspapers against the character of that 
service, and an urgent demand that we establish a 
bureau at Berlin. 

I explained to M. Cambon the reasons for the existing 

126 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

method. It had been our experience that if an Asso- 
ciated Press correspondent in any of the smaller cities 
of France should file a despatch for The Associated Press, 
it would be hung on a hook by a stupid clerk in the 
Government telegraph office. They would then send all 
the Government messages they had, and all the death 
messages, and all the commercial messages, and then 
they would take the Associated Press message from the 
hook and send it forward; but on its arrival in 
Paris it would suffer a like delay. The consequence was 
that it took us from six to seven hours to get a despatch 
through. On the other hand, we had found that we 
could obtain this news in Paris, send it by long-distance 
telephone to London, and there put it on the cable and 
forward it much more rapidly. To send a message from- 
New York to Rome and secure a reply usually required 1 
twenty-four hours. I suggested that if the French » 
Government could see its way clear to expedite our 
service, and if it would throw open all departments of 
the Government and give us the news, I should be very 
glad to establish a bureau in Paris and take all our news 
respecting France from Paris direct. 

M. Cambon asked me to go abroad and take the 
matter up with his Government, and, after some delay 
and some discussion of the subject, I agreed to do so. 
This was in the autumn of 1902. The only preparation 
made was that Ambassador Cambon had reported to 
the French Foreign Office on the desirability of some 
change, and had explained to them my wishes. 

On my arrival in Paris I called on M. Delcasse, the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs. He received me cordially, 
was fully advised of the situation, and evinced much 
interest. He said that while it was a rather serious 
business, and one which he must take up with his con- 
freres, particularly the Minister of Telegraphs, he sin- 
cerely favored my views. He invited me to breakfast 
in the palace of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There I 
met two or three of the other ministers. I told them 

127 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

that our people must be absolutely free, that there must 
be no attempt to influence them. While, in order to be 
useful, the representative of The Associated Press ac- 
credited to any capital must be on friendly terms with 
the Government at that capital, he must not be a servile 
agent of that Government; we could not deny our- 
selves the right of free criticism, and anything we might 
do must be done with the distinct understanding that the 
Government would not influence the character of the 
service as to its impartiality. 

I found that there was likely to be a good deal of delay, 
and, after laying the matter before the French minister 
and telling him what I desired, and receiving an expres- 
sion of his purpose to work it out as best he could, I 
left him. 

My interview with M. Delcasse was in his private room 
in the palace set apart for the Department of Foreign 
Affairs. He called my attention to an old mahogany 
table at his side, which, he said, had served three times 
to affect the fate of the American Republic. On it was 
signed the convention which Benjamin Franklin and 
Silas Deane made with the French Government to secure 
funds for the United States in its struggling days. On 
it were also signed the Treaty of Peace following the War 
of 1812, and the Treaty of Peace with Spain in 1898. 

I returned to New York, and a month later M. 
Delcasse presented his plan. The French officials would 
give the representative of The Associated Press all proper 
information. They would answer any questions that 
might be of interest to this country, and they would do 
all in their power to expedite the service. They issued 
three forms of telegraph blanks: one bearing across its 
face, in red ink, the words "Associated Press"; the 
second form, the words "Associated Press, tres presse"; 
and the third form, the words "Associated Press, ur- 
gent." These they issued to us, to be used at our dis- 
cretion and subject to a general order of the French 
Government, sent to all telegraph employees throughout 

128 




WILLIAM L. MCLEAN 
Philadelphia Bulletin 



Members of the Present Board of Directors— I 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

France, which provided that when the first form was 
deposited in any French telegraph office, the operator 
should send forward all Government messages and then 
the Associated Press message should be transmitted 
immediately thereafter; if the second form, ''Associated 
Press, tres presse," was used, the despatch should follow 
the Government message then on the wire and precede 
any other Government message; and if an "Associated 
Press, urgent " message should be presented, the operator 
should immediately stop the outgoing Government mes- 
sage and forward the press despatch immediately. 
This arrangement was put into force. Since then our 
despatches from France, long and short, have averaged 
about twenty-one minutes. We established an adequate 
bureau in Paris, and employed a large number of 
subordinate correspondents throughout the country, 
sometimes Frenchmen and sometimes Americans, and 
our service has proved highly satisfactory. It is no more 
expensive than formerly, the rate from Paris direct being 
precisely the rate from London direct, so that we save 
the transmission from Paris to London for which we 
formerly paid. The office expenses may be increased 
somewhat, but, in compensation, we have reduced the 
office force in London. 

I had suggested that Paris, and not London, was the 
natural point of concentration for our despatches from 
the Latin nations, and M. Delcasse, having that in mind, 
invited me to confer with the Italian and Spanish 
Governments. I therefore went abroad again. The 
French Foreign Office was pleased with the experience 
they had had. They issued a formal letter of instruc- 
tions to M. Barrere, French ambassador at the Quirinal, 
to take the matter up with the Italian Government, with 
a view to inducing that Government to expedite our 
service from Italy to the French border, where the mes- 
sages would be forwarded by the French administration 
and rushed on to New York. I went to Rome and, 
after paying calls on the American ambassador, saw 
9 129 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

M. Barrere, who had received his instructions, and 
who entered upon the work enthusiastically. He desired 
to secure the concession distinctly on behalf of the 
French Government ; while he was glad to receive the co- 
operation of the American ambassador, he wished to 
make it his own special work. M. Barrere speaks 
English perfectly. 

The American ambassador, Mr. Meyer, gave a 
luncheon in my honor, at which were present Signor 
Prinetti, the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and 
M. Barrere. The subject was talked over in detail with 
Signor Prinetti, and I was s then commanded to an 
audience with the King. Going to the Quirinal, I en- 
tered a small anteroom at noon, where two aides were 
in waiting. His Majesty received me in an adjoining 
room. I found him dressed in the costume of an 
officer of the Italian army — dark-blue blouse and light- 
blue trousers with black stripes. He greeted me cor- 
dially, and asked me to be seated. He sat on a sofa, 
while I was given a chair, and we entered into a lively 
conversation. He said he knew the purpose of my 
visit, having been informed of it through Prinetti. He 
was glad that we were disposed to take up the matter of 
a service from Rome direct, assured me that he would 
do everything that could be done, and thought there 
would be no difficulty in meeting our wishes; I could 
rest assured of his loyal effort in the matter, and that 
it would be pursued without delay. 

We talked at some length about Marconi, in whose 
work he displayed a deep interest, and of the relations 
between Italy and America. I suggested the difficult 
position in which an Associated Press representative 
would find himself in Rome because of the contest 
between the Vatican and the Quirinal. I found, how- 
ever, that while officially affairs were strained, personal 
relations were not unkindly. Leo XIII. was Pope. The 
King spoke most kindly of the Holy Father, and while, 
of course, they never met, there was no bitterness mani- 

130 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

fested on either side. I told him that ordinarily it would 
be necessary for me to appoint two representatives, one 
for the Vatican and one for the Quirinal, but that I had a 
man in mind whom I thought persona grata to both sides. 
I had talked of this man with Prinetti, who had expressed 
the highest confidence in him. The King said he thought 
it would be quite unnecessary to appoint two representa- 
tives if the Vatican were disposed to go half-way; with 
one man there would be less danger of friction. 

The King expressed his high appreciation of the work 
of the Association, and called attention to the fact that 
a number of his own Ministers were newspaper men, and 
that his American ambassador, Signor Mayor des Plan- 
ches, was an old-time journalist in whom he had great 
confidence. He said, in speaking of the relations be- 
tween the United States and Italy, that he trusted that 
they would always be cordial. The Italians felt that, 
through Columbus, they had given America to the 
world, and that they had a peculiar interest, therefore, 
in the United States. He also said that while Italy is 
spoken of as a kingdom, it is in fact a republic in disguise, 
having the same parliamentary freedom that exists in 
England and the United States. Concerning Italian 
emigration to the United States, he said he was greatly 
pleased because a large number of the emigrants who 
went to the United States perfected themselves by their 
sojourn there, learned American methods, and then came 
back to Italy and applied these methods in their home 
life. He said that the percentage of Italians who emi- 
grated to the United States and remained there was much 
smaller than was generally supposed. He added that it 
was the practice of many emigrants to go to the United 
States for work during the summer season, and then 
return to Italy and spend their surplus earnings in ac- 
quiring lands and bettering their condition. He ex- 
pressed the hope that Italian citizens would be found 
to be good citizens of the United States. They were law- 
abiding and economical. 

131 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

I also had an audience with the Pope. It, too, was held 
at noon. I drove to the Vatican, and was received by a 
secretary. At every turn of the stairway were members 
of the Swiss Guard in their brilliant uniform. On my 
arrival at the residence floor, a member of the Noble 
Guard greeted me and received my wraps. I was then 
taken through a long series of rooms until I arrived at the 
throne-room. There I met a French Cardinal, who 
greeted me, and then I entered the anteroom of the papal 
reception-hall. A door was opened, and I was admitted 
to the presence of the Holy Father. The room was per- 
haps twenty feet by thirty. At one end, on a slightly 
raised dais, sat the Pope. The surroundings formed a 
striking picture. The venerable prelate was dressed in 
the cream- white garb of his office. His face was the color 
of parchment, and not different from the tone of his 
vestments. A "dim religious light" came in from the 
high window. On each side of him down the hall were 
ranged seats at a lower level. 

As I entered, I bowed with formality, and in a faint 
voice I heard him call my name. He reached out his 
hand and asked me to approach. Grasping my hand, he 
requested me to sit at his side, though on a lower level. 
There was no one else in the room. He took my right 
hand in his and covered it with his left, and during the 
hour that I talked with him he held it thus in an affec- 
tionate, parental way. 

I said that I was afraid he could not comprehend all 
I had to say in bad French. To which he replied, "I 
am an Italian and speak French with an Italian accent, 
and if we speak very slowly we shall be able to under- 
stand each other." 

He was most anxious that the United States should, 
accredit an ambassador to his court. "I am told," he 
said, "that there are political difficulties about it, but 
I cannot see why there should be. Germany, which is a 
Protestant nation, sends an ambassador to my court as 
well as one to the Quirinal. Russia, which is heretical 

132 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

and believes its own Emperor is the vicegerent of God, 
also sends one. Why cannot the United States ? I should 
be very happy if I could close my long career by estab- 
lishing relations with this young republic through their 
sending an ambassador to my court." Three or four 
times he referred to the subject with great earnestness. 
It seemed very near to his heart. 

The Pope at the time had shown wonderful capacity 
in dealing with the Philippine question. He had been 
very prompt in his decisions, and I took the liberty of 
saying to him that he was almost an American in the 
energetic way in which he had dealt with the subject. 
He laughed and replied: "Yes, yes; but, after all, what 
is time to the Church? What is yesterday, or to-day, or 
to-morrow? The Church is eternal." Something was 
said about the Quirinal. I cannot tell what led to it, but 
I shall never forget the dramatic incident. He was lean- 
ing over his chair. "Yes, yes," he said, faintly; "I am 
nearly ninety-four years old. I am a prisoner, but I am 
a sovereign!" 

You cannot leave the presence of royalty until dis- 
missed ; you must receive your conge. As he was holding 
my hand and talking on in a kindly, gentle way, I saw 
no prospect of a dismissal. Finally I ventured to say, 
"I am afraid I am fatiguing you?" He turned and said, 
"You will come and see me again?" "Unfortunately, 
your Holiness," I replied, "I must start for Paris at ten 
minutes to three to-day. " " Yes, yes, ' ' he said ; "I know 
you go to Paris to-day; that was the reason I fixed the 
audience at twelve o'clock. But you will come again? 
Come any time within ten years and I shall be glad to 
see you." 

I called on Cardinal Rampolla, and had a long talk 
with him in respect to the man whom I should appoint 
as our representative, and I named the gentleman whom 
I had in mind. He said he had a very great regard for 
him, and that, while he thought his sympathies were with 
the Quirinal, he still thought he would be just in all ques- 

i33 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

tions pertaining to Roman news. I appointed the gen- 
tleman, and he has proved very acceptable to both sides.* 

At a dinner Signor Prinetti had said that he had had a 
conference with his colleagues, and that he would be able 
to meet our wishes. Then he turned to me and said: 
"I have something which may interest you. Some time 
ago the Italian Government issued, in twenty-five or 
thirty parts, facsimiles of all the known reports and let- 
ters of Christopher Columbus — every known document 
bearing his handwriting and signature — and sent them 
to the royal libraries throughout Europe. I think we 
have one copy left, and I shall be very glad if you will 
permit me to present this one to you." I expressed my 
pleasure and gratitude. 

Three or four days after this dinner I went to the hunt 
outside of Rome. On my return I learned that Prinetti 
had, while in audience with the King, suffered a stroke 
of apoplexy. I left my card at Madame Prinetti's and 
wrote a letter of condolence to his chief assistant. I re- 
ceived a reply expressing Madame Prinetti's apprecia- 
tion and adding, ' ' I think you will be interested to learn 
that the last official act of Signor Prinetti, before he was 
stricken, was to sign an order to deliver the copy of the 
Columbus books to our consul-general in New York, to 
be forwarded to you." 

Next day my business with the Italian Government 
was arranged, and from that time our despatches have 
been coming from Italy in less than half an hour. When 
the Pope died we received the bulletin announcing the 
fact from the Vatican, two miles distant from our office 
in Rome, in nine minutes, and retransmitted it to Paris, 
Berlin, and London, giving them the first news. 

I went to Berlin, where I was "commanded" to an 
Ordenjest, and to dine with the Emperor. It occurred on 
a Sunday. The Ordenjest was an annual reception given 
by the imperial family to all persons who had been deco- 

* This correspondent is Mr. Salvatore Cortesi, still correspondent of 
The Associated Press at Rome. 

134 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

rated during the preceding year. The most distinguished 
men of Germany were present to the number of several 
hundred. At noon, in the chapel of the Schloss in Berlin, 
all those entitled to admission assembled. I drove to the 
Schloss, presented my card, and mounted the stairs to 
the chapel. At the chapel door I was escorted by a court 
marshal to a seat, where I watched the company gather. 
There were generals and admirals and many distinguished 
men. Facing the pulpit was a space reserved for the 
imperial family, three tiers of seats deep. After I had 
been sitting for some time, Baron von Richthofen, of the 
Foreign Office, came up and said, "This is not the seat 
for you; you are misplaced. A seat has been reserved 
for you." Then he led me to a seat immediately back of 
the imperial family. 

When the chapel was filled the master of ceremonies, 
with his mace in hand, rapped, and the imperial party 
entered. Every one rose as the Emperor and the Em- 
press appeared and passed to the seats reserved for them. 
Four pages carried the Empress's train. Prince Henry 
and Princess Irene, his wife; Prince Leopold and Prin- 
cess Leopold; and Prince Eitel, the Emperor's second 
son, followed. The Emperor sat at the extreme end of a 
row, with the Empress at his side, and next to Prince 
Henry, Prince Leopold, and their wives. Behind them 
were the younger members of the imperial family and 
the court attendants. 

The form of service of the Lutheran faith began, 
and at the proper times the Emperor rose first, and all 
others followed his action. When he sat, every one else 
followed. At the close of the service the imperial party 
withdrew, and Baron von Richthofen and his chief 
secretary, Dr. von Muhlberg, led me to the great 
White Hall, where a one-o'clock dinner was served. I 
was seated directly opposite the Kaiser. There were two 
long tables, one slightly raised on a platform, and in 
front of this another, at which I was seated. Herr 
Sydow, Postmaster-General, sat on my right, and Dr. 

i35 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Becker, President of the Reichstag, on my left. There 
were about twenty at table, including the imperial 
family. After those at the lower table had assembled 
there was a warning of some sort, and we all rose while 
the imperial party, with the Emperor leading, entered. 

They came in at the end of the hall and marched 
across and took their appointed places, everybody 
standing until the Emperor was seated. At the Em- 
peror's left sat the Empress, and at his right, Prince 
Leopold. Farther along sat Prince Eitel and Prince 
Henry and Princess Irene. The Crown Prince was not 
present. The dinner proceeded without incident. When 
it had ended the Emperor rose and offered the health 
of his guests, and then with a martial air turned and 
marched out, the imperial family following, while we 
at the lower table remained standing in our places. 
Then the Hofmarschall, gorgeously arrayed in the gold- 
braided costume of his office, came up and asked me to 
follow him. We went through a long series of halls and 
came to one where there were two doors with soldiers 
guarding them with crossed bayonets. As we ap- 
proached, the guards raised their guns, and we entered. 
I found myself in the presence of the imperial family 
of Germany. 

The Emperor stood at the farther side of the room, 
by a mantel, and standing about were the Empress, 
Prince Henry, Princess Irene, Prince Eitel, and Prince 
Leopold. Nobody else was in the room. I was pre- 
sented to the Kaiser. He greeted me very cordially, 
and spoke in English of my mission to Berlin, and 
expressed his pleasure at the prospect that the people 
of the United States would be able to see Germany 
through American eyes. He said freely and at some 
length that he bore our people in affectionate regard, 
and assured me that he would give the necessary orders 
to put The Associated Press in a satisfactory position in 
Germany. Finally, turning to Prince Henry, he said, 
"Here is a gentleman whom you know." The Prince 

136 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

was standing by his side and greeted me, adding, "I 
want you to know my wife." He then presented me to 
Princess Irene. She was cordial, speaking of her Eng- 
lish ancestors and the delight she had in meeting one 
who spoke her mother- tongue. Meanwhile several hun- 
dred people had gathered in the hall outside, awaiting 
an audience. The Hofmarschall approached and said 
that the Empress was ready to receive me. She was 
very gracious and said, ' ' I hope you will enjoy yourself ; 
we want you to know you are welcome." General von 
Plessen, who had visited the United States with Prince 
Henry, entered the room and greeted me cordially. As 
Von Plessen began talking, a young fellow came up — a 
splendid, stalwart boy — and, clicking his heels together, 
said: "I am Eitel; and I want to thank you for the 
courtesies you extended to my Uncle Henry while he was 
in America. It was very kind of you, and we all ap- 
preciated it." I said it was a pleasure for which no 
American deserved thanks. He was delightfully dif- 
fident . ' ' Do you like yachting ? " he asked . ' ' Have you 
seen the Meteor?' * ■ ' Yes, ' ' I replied ; ' ' she is a fine boat. ' ' 
He answered : "I hope to have a sail in her. I am sorry 
that my brother, the Crown Prince, is not here. He has 
gone to Russia. He will be greatly grieved because he is 
not here. I know you return to Italy. How long will 
you be in Italy? My brother and I are going to Italy, 
and if you will do me the honor to call on me there I 
shall be pleased." 

By this time the doors of the great hall opened, and 
the Emperor and Empress went out among the waiting 
people. The Emperor walked up on one side of the hall 
and the Empress on the other, an improvised avenue 
being arranged for each. Baron von Richthofen pre- 
sented me to a number of ambassadors. Prince Henry 
came up in a most informal way and said : "I know you 
will forgive me if I am not as attentive to you as I 
should like to be, because this is the one time in the 
year when every one in Germany who has been deco- 

i37 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

rated has the right to command our attention. But," 
he continued, "I hope you will enjoy yourself. We 
want to make you welcome. You will meet here many 
of the most distinguished men in Germany." The 
Hofmarschall signaled me to the presence of the Empress. 
Beside her was standing a little old man to whom she 
presented me. It was Menzel, the artist. He had just 
painted a picture of Frederick the Great, which he had 
dedicated to the people of the United States, and I 
congratulated him on the splendid work. Then I 
drifted to the other side of the hall as the Kaiser was 
coming up. He stopped and said: "I think you will 
find this an interesting ceremony. Every man who 
has been decorated within the year comes here, and we 
hold this reception. This man," he added, pointing to 
one obviously of the peasant class, "is a letter-carrier. 
He has been decorated. Back there is a locomotive- 
engine driver. A man may be decorated for courage 
or for skill. They all come here on this occasion." 

The reception lasted until four o'clock, when the 
imperial family withdrew. 

I met Postmaster-General Sydow. We talked over 
the French plan for expediting our telegrams. I said I 
thought a simpler way could be adopted. We finally 
agreed upon a small red label bearing the word "Amer- 
ica." Pasted on a despatch anywhere in Germany, it 
meant that the despatch must take first place on the 
wires. 

I had now perfected arrangements of a most satisfac- 
tory character with the French, Italian, and German 
Governments, and they all went into effect about the 
ist of January, 1903. 

A year later I was again invited to dinner by the 
German Emperor, and had an hour alone with him. 
He said he was greatly pleased with the better under- 
standing which had developed between Germany and 
the United States, which he was good enough to attribute 
in large measure to the presentation of a just view of 

138 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

German events and German motives by The Associated 
Press. He freely declared his desire to cement the 
friendly relations existing between the two nations, not 
because of any immediate political consequences, but in 
the larger interests of the world's peace and progress. 
He made no secret of his impatience over the hyper- 
critical, not to say censorious or malignant, tone of a 
number of journals of both countries, and said he be- 
lieved that only harm could result from their utterances. 
His manner was wholly unrestrained, cordial, and 
democratic. He was greatly gratified at the reception 
accorded to his brother, Prince Henry, but hoped that 
no citizen of the United States would imagine that the 
visit of the Prince meant more than a sincere desire to 
foster good-fellowship between the two peoples. 



IV 

THE REMOVAL OF THE RUSSIAN CENSORSHIP ON 
FOREIGN NEWS* 

SATISFACTORY relations had been arranged be- 
tween The Associated Press and France, Germany, 
and Italy, but obviously the place of chief interest was 
Russia. It had often been suggested that we station cor- 
respondents at St. Petersburg, but apparently the time 
was not ripe. It was the last country in which to try 
an experiment. Wisdom therefore dictated a delay until 
it could be determined how the agreement with other 
Continental powers would work out. Moreover, it was 
important that the St. Petersburg bureau, in case one 
should be established, should be conducted by a corre- 
spondent of singular tact. With this possible course in 
view, I put in training for the post a gentleman from our 
Washington office in whom I had great confidence. He 

* From The Century Magazine, May, 1905. Reprinted here with the 
courteous permission of The Century Company. 

139 



M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 



was a graphic writer and a man of wide information and 
rare discretion. He studied French until he was able to 
speak with reasonable freedom, and devoted himself to 
the study of Russian history.* 

The situation at the Russian capital was peculiar. 
Every conceivable obstacle was put in the way of the 
foreign journalist who attempted to telegraph news 
thence to any alien newspaper or agency. The business 
of news-gathering was under ban in the Czar's empire. 
The doors of the Ministers of State were closed ; no public 
official would give audience to a correspondent. Even 
subordinate government employees did not dare to be 
seen in conversation with a member of the hated guild, 
and all telegrams were subject to a rigorous censorship. 

Count Cassini, the Russian ambassador at Washing- 
ton, was friendly, and desired me to act. While I still 
had the matter under consideration, an agent of the 
Russian Government urged me to go at once to St. 
Petersburg. I sailed in December, 1903, and by arrange- 
ment met the Russian agent in London. To him I 
explained that we were ready to take our news of Russia 
direct from St. Petersburg, instead of receiving it through 
London, but to do that four things seemed essential: 
First, the Russian Government should accord us a press 
rate that would enable us to send news economically. 
Second, they should give us such precedence for our 
despatches as the French, Italian, and German Govern- 
ments had done. Third, they must open the doors of 
their various departments and give us the news. And, 
fourth, they must remove the censorship and enable us 
to send the news. If we should go there at all, we must 
go free to tell the truth. Obviously, we could not tell 
the truth unless we could learn the truth and be free to 
send it. 

The agent said that, acting under instructions, he 
would leave London immediately for St. Petersburg, in 
order to have a week there before my arrival, so as to 

* This was the late Howard Thompson. 
140 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

lay the matter before the Ministers in detail. Meanwhile 
I went to Paris. At my suggestion, the French Foreign 
Office wrote to their ambassador at St. Petersburg, in- 
structing him to use his good offices with the Russian 
Government, the ally of the French Government, in an 
attempt to secure for The Associated Press the service 
that was desired. They assured the Russian Govern- 
ment that they believed the best interests of the world 
and of Russia would be served by granting my request, 
which they regarded as very reasonable. I went to Berlin, 
and the German Foreign Office advised the German am- 
bassador at St. Petersburg in the same manner. On my 
arrival in St. Petersburg, therefore, I had the friendly 
intercession of the ambassadors of both these Govern- 
ments, and the support of Count Cassini, as well as the 
influence of our own ambassador, Mr. McCormick. 

An audience with Count LamsdorfT, the Russian Min- 
ister of Foreign Affairs, was arranged, and Mr. McCor- 
mick and I laid the subject before him. He was per- 
fectly familiar with it, as he had received the report of 
the Government agent and had also received favorable 
advices from Count Cassini. The Minister assured me 
that he would do everything in his power to aid in the 
movement, because he felt that it was wise; but, un- 
fortunately, the whole question of the censorship and of 
telegraphic transmission was in the hands of the Minister 
of the Interior, M. Plehve. Count LamsdorfT said that, 
the day before our call, he had transmitted their agent's 
report to Plehve, with an urgent letter advising the 
Russian Government to meet the wishes of The Asso- 
ciated Press. He told me that I could rely on his friendly 
offices, and I left him. 

The reply of Count LamsdorfT, and later that of M. 
Plehve, disclosed the anomalous condition of the Russian 
Government. The Ministers of State are independent of 
one another, each reporting to the Emperor, and fre- 
quently they are at odds among themselves. 

Ambassador McCormick and I called on Minister 

141 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Plehve. We found him most agreeable. I studied him 
with some care. A strong, forceful, but affable gentleman, 
he impressed me as a man charged with very heavy 
responsibilities, quite mindful of the fact, and fearful lest 
any change in existing conditions might be fraught with 
danger. He said, frankly, that he was not prepared to 
abolish the censorship. To his mind it was a very impru- 
dent thing to do, but he said he would go as far as he 
could toward meeting our wishes. As to a press rate, 
unfortunately that was in the hands of the Minister of 
Finance, and he had no control of the subject; and as to 
expediting our despatches, in view of the entirely inde- 
pendent character of each Minister it would be beyond 
his power to stop a Government message, or a message 
from any member of the royal family, in our favor. 
Beyond that he would give us as great speed as was in 
his power. He would be very glad, so far as his bureau 
was concerned, to give such directions as would enable 
our correspondent to secure all proper information. 

As I have said, no newspaper man at that time could 
expect to secure admission to any department of the 
Government. Indeed, a card would not be taken at the 
door if it were known to be that of a newspaper man. 
The consequence was that the correspondent got his 
information at the hotels, in the cafes, or in the streets. 
The papers published little, but the streets were full of 
rumors of all kinds, and some of them of the wildest 
character. After running down a rumor and satisfying 
himself as to its verity, the correspondent would write 
his despatch and drive two or three miles to the office 
of the censor. The restrictions put upon foreign corre- 
spondents had been so great that they had virtually 
abandoned Russia; and when I arrived there, with the 
exception of our men who had preceded me, no foreign 
correspondent was sending daily telegrams from St. 
Petersburg. The thing was retroactive. Because the 
Government would not permit despatches to go freely, no 
despatches were going. The censor's duties, therefore, 

142 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

had been so lightened that the Government had added 
to his work the censorship of the drama, and the chances 
were that when the correspondent called he would have 
to run around to some theater to find the censor; and 
he might be sure that between midnight and eight 
o'clock in the morning he could never see him, because a 
censor must sleep some time, and he would not allow 
anybody to disturb him between those hours, which for 
the American morning newspapers were the vital hours. 

It happened that M. Lamscott, the censor of foreign 
despatches, was a very reasonable man. But he was a 
subordinate of a subordinate in the Ministry of the 
Interior. He was a conscientious, well-meaning person, 
disposed to do all that he could for us, and he personally 
was opposed to the censorship; but he could not pass a 
telegram that would be the subject of criticism by a 
Minister or important subordinate in any department of 
the Government, or by any member of the royal family. 
And since he was liable to be criticized for anything he 
might do, his department became a bureau of suppression 
rather than of censorship. He could take no chances. 
Certain rules had been adopted, and one of them pro- 
vided that no mention whatever of a member of the royal 
family should appear in a despatch after the censor had 
passed upon it. If, by any chance, the correspondent 
succeeded in securing information and writing it in such 
fashion that it would pass the censorship, he drove two 
miles to the telegraph bureau and paid cash at commer- 
cial rates for his despatch. It then must wait till all 
Government and commercial business had been cleared 
from the wires. 

Under such a rule, it must be obvious that the business 
of sending despatches from Russia was impracticable. 
The mere matter of paying cash, which at first sight 
would not seem a great hardship, meant that, in the 
event of some great happening requiring a despatch of 
length, the correspondent must carry with him several 
hundred rubles. He could not trust a Russian servant 

i43 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

with this, but must go in person. There are over two 
hundred holidays in Russia every year, when the banks 
are closed and cash is not obtainable. The obstacle pre- 
sented by that fact, therefore, was a very serious one. 

Such were the conditions. After my audience with 
M. Plehve, the case seemed nearly hopeless, and I was 
delaying my departure from Russia only until I should 
receive a definite statement that nothing could be done, 
when the following Sunday morning the American am- 
bassador called me on the telephone and said that I was 
to be commanded to an audience with the Emperor. The 
ambassador thought it best to keep in touch with him, 
since I was liable to be summoned at any moment. Dur- 
ing the day I received the command to an audience on 
Monday. 

After seeing M. Plehve I had a talk with the censor. 
M. Lamscott spoke English perfectly. He said that if his 
opinion were asked respecting the censorship, he would 
be very glad to say that he disapproved of the whole 
thing ; but he was not at liberty to volunteer his advice. 
I also, by suggestion of M. Plehve, had a conference with 
M. Dournovo, his chief subordinate, the Minister of Tele- 
graphs. Dournovo is an old sailor, a hale, rough-and- 
ready type of man. He had spent some time in San 
Francisco while in command of a Russian vessel, spoke 
English perfectly, and proved a most progressive spirit. 
He was ready to do anything that he could, and assured 
me that by adopting a certain route via Libau he would 
be able to give our despatches the desired precedence. 
He said he would also issue orders to the trans-Siberian 
lines, so that we could rest assured that our despatches 
would not take more than an hour from Port Arthur or 
Vladivostok to New York. 

We were making progress. We had succeeded in se- 
curing rapidity of transmission, a satisfactory press rate, 
and an arrangement to make a charge account, so that 
it would not be necessary to pay cash. Meanwhile suc- 
cessful efforts had been making for the appointment of 

144 




CHARLES HOPKINS CLARK 
Hartford Courant 



Members of the Present Board of Directors— II 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

an official in each ministerial department who would 
always receive our correspondent and aid him in his 
search for information if it fell within the jurisdiction 
of his department. General Kuropatkin, who at that 
time was Minister of War, Admiral Avelan, head of the 
navy department, and M. Pleske, the Minister of Fi- 
nance, each appointed such a man. Finally I was com- 
manded to the audience with the Emperor. 

A private audience with the Emperor of Russia in 
the Winter Palace is an honor which must impress one. 
I was notified upon the formal card of command what 
costume I was expected to wear — American evening 
dress, which, in the court language of Europe, is known 
as "gala" garb. At half -past three on the afternoon of 
February i , I presented myself. A servant removed the 
ever-present overshoes and overcoat, and a curious 
functionary in red court livery, with long white stock- 
ings and a red tam-o'-shanter cap from which streamed 
a large white plume, indicated by pantomime that I 
was to follow him. We ascended a grand staircase and 
began an interminable march through a labyrinth of 
wide halls and corridors. A host of attendants in 
gaudy apparel, scattered along the way, rose as we ap- 
proached and deferentially saluted. In one wide hall 
sat a company of guards, who clapped silver helmets 
on their heads, rose, and presented arms as we passed. 

I was shown into an anteroom, where the Grand Duke 
Andre awaited me. He introduced himself and chatted 
most agreeably about American affairs, until a door 
opened and I was ushered into the presence of His Im- 
perial Majesty. The room was evidently a library. It 
contained well-filled bookshelves, a large work-table, 
and an American roller-top desk. Without ceremony 
and in the simplest fashion the Emperor fell to a con- 
sideration of the subject of my visit. He was dressed 
in the fatigue uniform of the Russian navy — braided 
white jacket and blue trousers. The interview lasted 

about an hour. 

io I4S 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

I represented to His Majesty the existing conditions, 
and told him of the difficulties which we encountered, and 
the desire on the part of his ambassador at Washington 
that Americans should see Russia with their own eyes, 
and that news should not take on an English color by 
reason of our receiving it from London. I said that we 
felt a large sense of responsibility. Every despatch of 
The Associated Press was read by one-half the population 
of the United States. I added that Russia and the 
United States were either to grow closer and closer or 
they were to grow apart, and we were anxious to do 
whatever we properly might to cement the cordial rela- 
tions that had existed for a hundred years. 

His Majesty replied: "I, too, feel my responsibility. 
Russia and the United States are young, developing 
countries, and there is not a point at which they should 
be at issue. I am most anxious that the cordial relations 
shall not only continue, but grow." 

When assured, in response to an inquiry, that the 
Emperor desired me to speak frankly, I said: "We come 
here as friends, and it is my desire that our representa- 
tives here shall treat Russia as a friend; but it is the 
very essence of the proposed plan that we be free to tell 
the truth. We cannot be the mouthpiece of Russia, we 
cannot plead her cause, except in so far as telling the 
truth in a friendly spirit will do it." 

"That is all we desire," His Majesty replied, "and all 
we could ask of you. " He requested me to recount the 
specific things I had in mind. 

I told the Emperor that the question of rate and speed 
of transmission had fortunately been settled by his 
Ministers, and that the two questions I desired to present 
to him were those of an open door in all the departments, 
that we might secure the news, and the removal of the 
censorship. "It seems to me, Your Majesty," I said, 
"that the censorship is not only valueless from your own 
point of view, but works a positive harm. A wall has 
been built up around the country, and the fact that no 

146 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

correspondent for a foreign paper can live and work 
here has resulted in a traffic in false Russian news that is 
most hurtful. 

"To-day there are newspaper men in Vienna, Berlin, 
and London who make a living by peddling out the news 
of Russia, and it is usually false. If we were free to 
tell the truth in Russia, as we are in other countries, no 
self-respecting newspaper in the world would print a 
despatch from Vienna respecting the internal affairs of 
Russia, because the editor would know that, if the 
thing were true, it would come from Russia direct. 
All you do now is to drive a correspondent to send his 
despatches across the German border. I am able to 
write anything I choose in Russia, and send it by mes- 
senger to Wirballen, across the German border, and it 
will go from there without change. You are powerless 
to prevent my sending these despatches, and all you 
do is to anger the correspondent and make him an 
enemy, and delay his despatches, robbing the Russian 
telegraph lines of a revenue they should receive. So it 
occurs to me that the censorship is inefficient ; that it is a 
censorship which does not censor, but annoys." 

I went over the common experiences of all newspaper 
men who had been in Russia, and the Emperor agreed 
that the existing plan was not only valueless, but hurt- 
ful. He said that if I could stay in St. Petersburg a 
week he would undertake to do all that I desired. I 
asked if it would be of service to make a memorandum 
of the things I had said to him. He replied that he would 
be very glad to receive such a memorandum, as it would 
help him to speak intelligently with his Ministers. We 
then talked about the negotiations with Japan and of 
the internal affairs of Russia. He said over and over 
again that there must be no war, that he did not believe 
there would be one, and that he was going as far as self- 
respect would permit him in the way of meeting the 
Japanese in the matter of their differences. 

I was then given my leave by His Majesty, who 

i47 



"M. E. S. ,, -~ HIS BOOK 

courteously suggested that he should see me at the court 
ball which was to take place that evening. Three or 
four hours later I attended the ball, and he came to me 
and reopened the conversation in the presence of the 
American ambassador, and was good enough to say 
to Mr. McCormick that he had had a very interesting 
afternoon. 

During the conversation with the Emperor, to illus- 
trate the existing difficulties, I remarked that on the pre- 
ceding Sunday we had received a cable message from our 
New York office to the effect that a very sensational 
despatch had been printed throughout the United States, 
purporting to come from Moscow, and alleging that, 
during the progress of certain army manceuvers under the 
direction of the Grand Duke Sergius (assassinated Feb- 
ruary 17, 1905), a large body of troops had been ordered 
to cross a bridge over the Moscow River, and, by a blun- 
der, another order had been given at the same time to 
blow up the bridge, and thus a thousand soldiers had 
been killed. This despatch came to us on Sunday 
evening, with the request that we find out whether it 
was true. There was no way to ascertain. Nobody 
could get any information from the War Department; 
nobody would be admitted to ask such a question; and 
I told the Emperor the chances were that, in the ordinary 
course of things, this would happen : three or four weeks 
later the false despatch would be sent back by post from 
the Russian legation at Washington, and there would be 
a request made on the part of the Russian Government 
that it be denied, because there was not a word of truth 
in it ; but the denial would go out a month or six weeks 
after the statement, and no newspaper would print it, 
because interest in the story had died out. Thus nobody 
would see the denial. 

It happened in this case that we knew a man in St. 
Petersburg who had been in Moscow on the day men- 
tioned, and when he saw the telegram he said at once: 
"I know all about that story. Two years ago the 

148 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Grand Duke Sergius, at some manoeuvers, did order 
some troops to cross a bridge, and a section of it was 
blown up and one man was killed." I said to His 
Majesty, ''In this instance we were able to correct the 
falsehood; but it is most important that a correction 
of this sort should follow the falsehood at the earliest 
moment, while the thing is still warm in the public 
mind. ,, 

He said he recognized the wisdom of that, and he 
also recognized that obviously, if our service was to be 
of any value to us whatever, the departments must be 
open to us and make answer to questions, giving the 
facts. 

Later in the evening Count Lamsdorff came up and 
expressed his gratification at the interview I had had 
with the Emperor. He said that the Emperor had told 
him of it, and Count Lamsdorff added, ' ' I think it of great 
value to Russia, and I want to thank you for having told 
the truth to His Majesty, which he hears all too rarely." 

While chatting with the Emperor at the ball I asked 
how I should transmit the memorandum referred to in 
the afternoon's interview, and he told me to send it 
through Baron de Freedericksz, Minister of the Palace. 

The next day I prepared the memorandum for trans- 
mission, and then it occurred to me that it would be 
befitting the dignity of the imperial office if it were 
neatly printed, and I set out to find a printer who could 
do it in English. I drove to the Credit Lyonnais, and 
called on the manager, whom I knew, and asked him 
if there was a printing-office in St. Petersburg where 
English could be printed. He gave me a card to the 
manager of a very large establishment located in the 
outskirts of the city. 

The manager was a kindly old German who spoke 
French. I told him what was wanted, and he said he 
would be delighted to do anything for an American: 
he had a son, a railway engineer, at Muskegon, Michigan. 
He said he had no compositors who understood English, 

149 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

but he had the Latin type, and, as the copy was type- 
written, his printers could pick it out letter by letter and 
set it up, and then I could revise the proof and put it in 
shape. He asked me when it was needed. I replied 
that I must have it by noon of the following day. He 
said that would involve night work, but he would be 
very glad indeed to keep on a couple of printers to set 
it up. 

As I was about to leave he glanced at the manuscript 
and said, with a startled look, "This has not been 
censored." 

"No," I replied, "it has not been censored." 

"Then," he said, "it must be censored; there is a fine 
of five hundred rubles and three months in jail for 
setting one word that does not bear the censor's stamp. 
I should not dare, as much as I should like to accommo- 
date you, to put myself in jeopardy. But," he added, 
"you will have no trouble with it. It is now six o'clock. 
I will have the engineer stay and keep the lights burning, 
and have the two printers go out to dinner, and you can 
go and have it censored, in the mean time, very much 
more quickly than I can. Return here by eight o'clock, 
and we can work on it all night, if necessary." 

I drove at once to M. Lamscott, he being the censor 
who had passed upon our despatches, and presented the 
case to him. His countenance fell at once. 

"I hope you will believe that, if it were in my power 
to help you, I would do so," he said; "but, unfortu- 
nately, my function is to censor foreign despatches only, 
and I have no power to censor job-work. That falls 
within an entirely different department, and my stamp 
would not be of any use to you whatever. But I may 
say to you, as a friend, that it is hopeless. If Minister 
Plehve, in whose department this falls, sought to have 
a document like this censored, it would take him a week 
to have it go through the red tape which would be 
necessary. And the very thing which makes you think 
that this should be easy to censor makes it the most 

150 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

difficult thing in the world, because no censor would dare 
to affix his stamp to a paper which is in the nature of a 
petition to the sovereign until it had passed step by step 
through all the gradations of office up to His Majesty 
himself, and he had signified a willingness to receive it. 
Then it would have to come back through all the 
gradations to the censor again ; and it would be two or 
three weeks before you would get the document in 
shape to print it." 

I laughed, and said a petition to remove the censorship 
required so much censoring that it was actually amusing. 

He replied, "The only thing you can do is to write it." 

So I took it to the American embassy, had it engrossed, 
and transmitted it to the Emperor, and then waited for 
some word from him. 

I received an invitation to the second ball, which the 
Emperor had assured me would be a much more agree- 
able function than the first, because, instead of thirty- 
three hundred people, there would be only six hundred 
present. This second ball was to occur a week later. 

On Wednesday I transmitted the memorandum to His 
Majesty. On Thursday evening, at a reception, I en- 
countered Minister Plehve. He said he knew of my 
audience with the Emperor and had seen the memoran- 
dum which I had left with him ; and while he was desirous 
of doing everything in his power, I must remember that 
he was responsible for the internal order of Russia, and 
he could not bring himself to believe that a step of this 
kind was wise. It was almost revolutionary in its char- 
acter, and he wanted to know whether there could not 
be something in the nature of a compromise effected. 
"All your other requests have been provided for," he 
said; "the only question that remains is the censorship, 
and I want to know if you would not be content with an 
arrangement by which I should appoint a bureau of 
censors at the central telegraph office and keep them on 
duty night and day, with instructions to give you the 
largest possible latitude. I can assure you there would 

151 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

be virtually nothing but a censorship in form so far as 
you are concerned." 

I replied that I was sorry that I could not see my way 
clear to do the thing he asked. "I am not here, Your 
Excellency," I added, "to advise you as to your duties. 
That is a question which you must determine for your- 
self. Neither am I here to say that I think the suggestion 
you make an unwise one. I do not know. It may not 
be wise for you to remove the censorship. That is a 
question which I am not called on to discuss. I am here 
at the instance of the Russian Government, because it 
desired me to come. It desired us to look at Russia 
through our own eyes. Obviously we cannot do that 
unless we are absolutely free. Anything less than free- 
dom in the matter would mean that we should be 
looking at Russia, not through our eyes, but through 
your eyes. So, without the slightest feeling in the mat- 
ter, if you do not see your way clear, I shall take myself 
out of Russia, and we shall go on as we have done for a 
hundred years — taking our Russian news from London." 

"Oh no," said he in a startled tone; "that must not 
be. I would not have you understand me as saying that 
your wishes will not be met. I believe His Majesty has 
given you assurances on the point, and of course it is 
in his hands, and he will do whatever he thinks best 
about it." 

The Minister then suddenly saw, in another part of the 
room, a lady to whom he desired to speak, and we 
parted. Later in the evening he drew close to my side 
and asked in a whisper if I had heard the news. 

"What news?" I asked. It was at a moment when 
the whole world was waiting breathless for Russia's 
last reply to Japan. 

"The reply to Japan went forward to-night," he re- 
plied; "and I thought you might want to know it." 

"Indeed," I said; "and when?" 

"At seven o'clock." 

He then quietly drew away, and I sought out our 

152 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

correspondent and communicated the fact to him. Go- 
ing to the censor, he had his despatch censored and for- 
warded it. About an hour later, after twelve o'clock, 
the French Minister said to me, "You know the news?" 

I regarded Minister Plehve's information as confiden- 
tial and asked, "What news?" 

"I think you know very well, because Plehve told 
you," he answered. 

"Yes," I said; "the answer has gone to Japan." 

"No, not to Japan," he replied; "but to Alexieff, and 
it will not reach Baron de Rosen, the Russian Minister 
at Tokio, until Saturday or Monday." 

I was naturally startled, because the despatch which 
had been sent to New York had reported that the 
answer had gone to Japan. Twelve o'clock had come 
and gone, there was no opportunity to secure a censored 
correction, and an inaccurate despatch was certain to be 
printed in all the American papers the following morning, 
and I was apparently powerless to prevent it. 

Mr. Kurino, the Japanese Minister, was anxious to 
know the news. I did not feel at liberty to communicate 
it to him, and he turned away, saying, "Well, I think 
this is a very unpleasant place for me, and I shall take 
my departure." So he and his wife left me to make 
their adieus to the hostess. 

I also took my leave and drove at once to the tele- 
graph office. Now, they did not censor private mes- 
sages. I entered the telegraph bureau and wrote this 
despatch : 

Walter Neef, 40 Evelyn Gardens, London: 

Howard was slightly in error in his telegram to-night. The docu- 
ment has been telegraphed to the gentleman in charge in the East, 
and will reach its destination Saturday or Monday. 

I signed my name and handed in the message, which 
was delivered promptly in London to Mr. Neef, the chief 
of our London office, who at once sent a correction to 

iS3 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

the United States, and the despatch appeared in proper 
form in the American papers. 

Plehve was a strong, forceful, and, I believe, sincere 
man — one who felt that all the repressive measures he 
had adopted were necessary. He was not a reactionary 
in the fullest sense. He was a progressive man, but his 
methods were obviously wrong. He felt that "if the 
lines were loosed the horses would run away." I did 
not gain the impression that he was an intriguer or that 
he was sinister in his methods. He seemed direct, 
sincere, conscientious. He belonged to the number who 
believe that the greatest good can come to Russia by 
easy stages and by repressive measures. He did not 
believe in the press; he did not believe that the best 
interests of the people were to be served by education: 
but he did believe in the Autocracy, with all that it 
implies. The impression left on my mind was that he 
was afraid the censorship would be abolished over his 
head, and he wanted to make terms less dangerous from 
his point of view. 

I received a telegram asking me to go to Berlin and 
dine at the American ambassador's house, the Kaiser 
to be present. This was to occur on the night of the 
nth of February, and through the good offices of the 
American ambassador (I having said I would remain in 
St. Petersburg to await His Majesty's pleasure) I asked 
leave to go to Berlin, and it was granted. 

On my return I was in a dilemma. The war with 
Japan was on. I had given my word to the Emperor 
that I would await his pleasure, but I was aware that 
his mind and heart were full of the disasters that had 
befallen the Russian arms in the East, and that he 
probably had had no time to give thought to my mission. 
There was a fair prospect of waiting indefinitely and 
without result. Before going to Russia, I had been 
warned by a number of friends, in sympathetic tones, 
that my visit would be a failure ; that it was well enough 
to go to St. Petersburg in order to learn the conditions; 

i54 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

that the journey would probably be worth the trouble 
involved; but that any effort to remove the censorship 
on foreign despatches would be sheer waste of time. 

William T. Stead had gone to Russia a year before 
on the same mission, and had had the advantage of the 
personal friendship of Plehve. Stead was known as the 
most active pro-Russian journalist in the world. He had 
had a personal audience with the Czar at his country 
place in Livadia, and had signally failed. I felt there- 
fore that these prophecies of evil were likely to be ful- 
filled, and I determined to leave as soon as I could do 
so with propriety. 

I asked Ambassador McCormick if he would call on 
Count Lamsdorff and say frankly to him that I knew 
how occupied the attention of all the officials was, and 
I thought it perhaps an inopportune time to pursue the 
matter, and would, therefore, if agreeable, take my 
leave. Mr. McCormick called at the Foreign Office that 
afternoon on some official business, and, before leaving, 
told Count Lamsdorff of my predicament, and asked 
his advice. 

Count Lamsdorff replied in a tone of surprise, "The 
thing is done." 

"I do not follow you," said Ambassador McCormick. 

1 ' Mr. Stone left a memorandum of his wishes with His 
Majesty, did he not?" said Count Lamsdorff. "Well, 
the Emperor wrote 'Approved' on the corner of the 
memorandum, and all will be done. There may be a 
slight delay incident to working out the details, but it 
will be done." 

"Would it not be well," asked Mr. McCormick, "for 
Mr. Stone to call on Minister Plehve and talk the matter 
over with him as to the details?" 

"There is nothing to say," said Count Lamsdorff; 
"it is finished. Mr. Stone has no occasion to see 
Plehve or any one else. It will all be done as speedily 
as possible." 

Mr. McCormick reported this conversation to me, and 

i55 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

I determined at once to depart, leaving the matter en- 
tirely in the hands of the authorities. I wrote, and de- 
spatched by hand, letters thanking Count Lamsdorff and 
Minister Plehve for their courtesy and for what they had 
done, and indicating my purpose to leave by the Vienna 
express on the following Thursday. Count Lamsdorff 
made a parting call, and Plehve sent his card. I left 
St. Petersburg on Thursday evening. 

On my arrival in Vienna I received the following from 
Mr. Thompson, chief of our St. Petersburg office: 

I know you will be gratified to learn that on my return to the 
office from the station after bidding you adieu, and before your feet 
left the soil of St. Petersburg, we were served with notice that the 
censorship was abolished so far as we were concerned. But Count 
Lamsdorff feels that it is a mistake, and that we shall be charged 
with having made a bargain, and any kindly thing we may say of 
Russia will be misconstrued. He thinks it would be much wiser 
if the censorship were abolished as to all foreign correspondents and 
bureaus, and desires your influence to that end. 

I wired back at once that I fully agreed with Count 
Lamsdorff' s views, and certainly hoped that it would be 
abolished as to the correspondents of the English, 
French, and German press at once; and forty-eight 
hours after the restriction was removed from The Asso- 
ciated Press, it was removed from everybody. 

Since my departure from St. Petersburg, not only our 
correspondents, but all foreign correspondents, have been 
as free to write and send matter from any part of Russia, 
except in the territory covered by the war, as from any 
other country in the world. We have found ourselves 
able to present a daily picture of life in Russia that has 
been most interesting and edifying, and even in the war 
district the Russian authorities have given the largest 
possible latitude to our correspondents. They have 
turned over to us in St. Petersburg, daily, without muti- 
lation, the official reports made to the Emperor and to 
the War Department, and the world had been astonished 
by the frank character of the despatches coming from 

156 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Russia. Ninety per cent, of the real news concerning 
the war has come in bulletin first from St. Petersburg, and 
later in detail from the field; and there has been no at- 
tempt on the part of the Government to influence the 
despatches, or even to minimize their disasters, when 
talking officially to our correspondents. The doors of all 
the Ministries have been opened to correspondents, who 
make daily visits to the War, Navy, Foreign, and In- 
terior offices, and are given the news with as much free- 
dom as in Washington. 

Until Port Arthur was invested, we found that we 
were able to receive despatches with extraordinary speed. 
On one occasion a despatch sent from New York to 
Port Arthur requiring a reply occupied for transmission 
and reply two hours and forty-five minutes ; and on the 
occasion of the birth of the son of the Emperor at Peter- 
hof, twenty-eight miles from St. Petersburg, we received 
the despatch announcing the fact in exactly forty-three 
minutes after its occurrence. 

As a consequence of these arrangements, The Asso- 
ciated Press has been able to usurp in a large measure 
the functions of the diplomat, and I think it makes for 
universal peace in a remarkable way. Instead of public 
questions now passing through the long and tedious 
methods of diplomacy as formerly, the story is told with 
authority by The Associated Press. The point of view of 
a country is presented no longer by diplomatic commu- 
nication, but in the despatches of The Associated Press. 

A striking instance of this occurred some months ago, 
when a Japanese war-vessel went into the neutral harbor 
of Chifu and captured the Rychitelni, a Russian gun- 
boat which had sought an asylum there. Our correspond- 
ent was on the Rychiielni when the Japanese lieutenant 
and a detachment arrived, and was a personal witness 
of the occurrence. His story appeared throughout the 
civilized world, and was made the subject of representa- 
tions by Russia, through her ally, France. In less than a 
week the Japanese Government prepared a careful de- 

i57 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

fense of their action and handed it to Mr. Egan, our cor- 
respondent in Tokio, with a request that he send it 
throughout the world. It was done, and it closed the 
incident. They made no effort, and distinctly said that 
they would make none, to send an official answer to 
Russia on the subject through the ordinary channels of 
diplomacy, but chose rather to send it through the 
agency of The Associated Press. 

The authorities of the Foreign Offices of the different 
European Governments recognize the independence of 
The Associated Press, and have virtually made choice of 
it as a forum for the discussion of current questions of 
international interest. They recognize that a telegram 
of The Associated Press, published, as it is, throughout 
the world, unless immediately explained, may arouse a 
public sentiment that can never be met by the ordinary 
methods of diplomacy. They recognize that in the end it 
is the high court of Public Opinion that must settle in- 
ternational questions, and not the immediate determina- 
tion of the Foreign Office of any country. 



V 
ITS WORK IN WAR* 

THE Associated Press has reported seven wars in the 
last twelve years; and, while all of them were 
prosecuted in countries allotted by our general agree- 
ments to the foreign agencies, it has been admittedly wise 
to send American newspaper men adequately to cover 
them in almost every case. The first of these wars, the 
Brazilian Revolution, occurred in 1893. President 
Peixoto had vetoed a bill making it impossible for the 
Vice-President to succeed to the Chief Magistracy, and 
one of the periodical South American insurrections fol- 

* From The Century Magazine, August, 1905. Reprinted here with 
the courteous permission of The Century Company. 

158 ' 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

lowed. The Agence Havas, our ally, attempted to report 
the affair; but the service was so insufficient that Asso- 
ciated Press men were despatched to the field of opera- 
tions. There was a rigorous press censorship throughout 
the disturbed area, but it was successfully evaded by the 
use of a code system which wholly misled the authorities. 
A number of apparently inoffensive telegrams addressed 
to New York commission houses, and relating to the 
condition of the coffee crop and the coffee market, were 
rendered in the home office of the Association into very 
accurate and interesting despatches detailing the prog- 
ress of the war. 

When a like revolt broke out in Nicaragua, and all 
foreign telegrams were interdicted, President Zelaya was 
appealed to, and replied with personally signed telegrams 
relating the causes of the war and reporting its progress. 
They were doubtless partizan, and were perhaps inac- 
curate, but they were the best to be had. 

REPORTING THE WAR WITH SPAIN 

It was in the Cuban and Spanish wars, however, that 
The Associated Press achieved its first notable success. 
Although by the terms of the existing compact the field 
of operations, both in the Caribbean Sea and in the Phil- 
ippines, was territory which the French agency had 
engaged to cover, early preparations were made for an 
American service. In the Cuban insurrection, special 
correspondents were stationed at various points of in- 
terest and did creditable work. Neither of the con- 
testants desired publicity, and following midnight 
marches and early morning raids, and transmitting news 
to New York by surreptitious means, were efforts which 
taxed the courage and ingenuity of the best trained men. 
When General Weyler was in command at Havana, he 
forbade all newspaper work. Nevertheless, thrilling ac- 
counts of the horrors attendant upon his reconcentrado 
system were smuggled out by Associated Press men at 

i59 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

imminent risk of being shot for their pains. It was an 
Associated Press story of the destruction of the United 
States battle-ship Maine in Havana harbor that was 
published exclusively throughout the world the morning 
after that unhappy event. 

But the work of these correspondents ended when the 
United States and Spain joined issue. A new plan of 
campaign was then organized. The situation presented 
serious problems. Land battles had been reported many 
times. But this must be a naval contest, and prompt 
newspaper reports of battles upon the high seas were 
unheard of. The outlook was made more unpromising 
when all the ocean cables touching Cuba were cut. But 
the Federal Government was reasonable and lent its aid. 
A capable reporter was installed upon the flag-ship of 
each of the squadrons, and both Sampson and Schley 
gave them every possible facility to enable them to do 
their work. A number of fast sea-going despatch-boats 
were chartered and sent to the Cuban coast. The whole 
service was placed in charge of my assistant, Colonel 
Diehl, who managed it wisely and succeeded in making 
a new record in the business of war reporting. A splen- 
did staff of correspondents was landed at Santiago with 
General Shafter's army, and their copy, as well as that 
of the men on the flag-ships, was carried by the despatch- 
boats to the cable stations on the Jamaican or Haitian 
coast. 

When Hobson sank the Merrimac at the mouth of 
Santiago Harbor, four men wrote a composite story 
which was so skilfully interwoven that the reader thought 
it all the work of a single pen. In the actions before San- 
tiago, the Associated Press men showed great courage 
and transmitted reports which, for descriptive power, 
accuracy, and comprehensiveness, have never been sur- 
passed. The story of the fateful encounter with Cervera's 
fleet cost, for cable tolls alone, over $8,000, and the total 
expenditures for reporting the war exceeded $300,000. 

It was dangerous work. Menaced by innumerable 

160 




W. H. COWLES 

Spokane Spokesman-Review 



Members of the Present Board of Directors— III 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

forms of tropical disease, exposed to death on the firing- 
line as often as any trooper, braving the horrors of a 
Caribbean hurricane in a wretched little vessel, or taking 
the chance of being sunk at any moment by either friend 
or foe, our men performed a gallant service; and, hap- 
pily, all came out alive. It was a cruel fate that com- 
pelled them to write anonymously, while much less 
capable men were written into temporary notoriety by 
the newspapers which employed them as " specials." 
The public never heard of these Associated Press men, 
but in newspaper offices and in army and navy circles 
they have always been recognized as the real historians 
of the war. Poor Lyman, one of the most conscientious 
of them, contracted a disease from which he afterward 
died. "Ned" Johnstone and "Nat" Wright are now 
managing the Cleveland Leader. Beach, Nelson, and 
Copp are trusted representatives in Western offices of 
The Associated Press. Collins is Reuter's manager for 
the Chinese Empire, but temporarily serving at General 
Kuroki's headquarters. Thompson and Mitchell are 
directing the bureau of The Associated Press at St. Pet- 
ersburg. Roberts is chief of the Berlin office. Goode, 
who served on Sampson's flag-ship, was, until recently, 
attached to the London bureau. Graham, who was with 
Schley, was, before this year, the Associated Press corre- 
spondent at Albany. It was Thompson who wrote the 
story of the dramatic surrender of Cuba, by the United 
States, to self-government, and by a unanimous and 
voluntary act of Congress his account was made part of 
the Congressional Record. 

In the campaign for the relief of the legations at Peking 
the organization won fresh laurels. Mr. Collins was. 
despatched from the Manila bureau, and Messrs. Kloeber 
and Egan were sent from New York via San Francisco. 
The Pacific cable had not been laid, and the messages 
were carried by Chinese runners from the army head- 
quarters before Peking to Tientsin, and cabled thence, 
via Chefoo and Shanghai, the Indian Ocean and the Red 
ii 161 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Sea, to London, and across the Atlantic Ocean to New York. 
Even following this tortuous line, they came, as a rule, a 
day ahead of the special telegrams to the London papers. 
There were numerous occasions, during the progress of 
the Boer War and of the contests in Venezuela, in which 
brilliant exhibitions of courage and enterprise were pre- 
sented ; but it is in the Russo-Japanese struggle that the 
service has reached its highest level of excellence. 

THE QUALITIES NEEDED IN A WAR CORRESPONDENT 

In reporting a war, the first and most important ques- 
tion naturally arises over the selection of correspondents. 
The number of men qualified by nature and education 
for such a task is very limited. Your war correspondent 
must be physically capable of withstanding the hardships 
of the field. He must be also as courageous as any soldier. 
Indeed, his lot is an even harder one, because he must 
put himself in places of the greatest danger without the 
patriotic fervor, the touch of the comrade's elbow, or the 
possession of a rifle, all of which are large factors in mak- 
ing up a trooper's bravery. He must be capable of de- 
scribing what he sees accurately and graphically. He 
must have as large a perspective as the commanding 
general, if he seeks to tell the whole story of the battle. 

But he may have all of these primal requisites and still 
prove a failure. He must be temperamentally a diplo- 
mat and capable of ingratiating himself into the sympa- 
thetic and helpful friendship of those with whom he 
comes in contact. He may be an ideal representative at 
the headquarters of an American general, but wholly 
incapable of serving satisfactorily with the Russians or 
the Japanese. As an illustration, all of our men on the 
Russian side speak either Russian or French. If they 
did not, they would be useless. At least three of them 
are long-time personal friends of General Kuropatkin. 

Above all, the war correspondent must possess in 
marked degree that familiarity with events and affairs 

162 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

which will command the confidence of those in power 
about him. His influence often extends beyond his pri- 
mary mission of reporting, and strays into the field of 
international diplomacy. For instance, during the Boxer 
rebellion in China, one of the Associated Press corre- 
spondents was sought out and consulted by the com- 
mander of one power represented in the allied expedition 
as to his proper attitude toward the military representa- 
tive of another power whose actions were causing grave 
concern in that delicate hour. 

DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSMITTING DESPATCHES 

But when the battle has been fought, and the corre- 
spondent, at great hazard, has written his story, then 
his troubles have only fairly begun. He must "pass the 
censor." This may be easy or it may be most difficult. 
Much depends upon the character and intelligence of the 
censor. It is only fair to say that we have found the Rus- 
sians very reasonable. They have shown far more wisdom 
than did the American censors during the Spanish War. 

Next, the messages must be transmitted. The corre- 
spondent must be "first at the wire," or his work may 
all come to naught. Here, again, he must exercise tact; 
otherwise a petty telegraph official, who is often a very 
monarch in his field, may spoil everything. And all along 
the long line — for the telegram is retransmitted half a 
dozen times before it reaches San Francisco or New York 
— the cable officials must be friendly and painstaking 
and intelligent, or the news will fail to reach its destina- 
tion promptly and in the form in which it was sent. 
Delays in transmission are inevitable, and it speaks vol- 
umes for the efficiency of modern telegraphy that they 
are so infrequent. Russian operators, Danish operators, 
Japanese operators, French operators — all handle and 
transmit these messages, often in bad chirography, in a 
language which they do not understand, and they seldom 
make a serious mistake. 

163 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

But our troubles do not end with the receipt of the 
message; for, with all the care that has been observed 
by correspondents and telegraph officials, it does not 
often reach us in shape to go at once to the press. There 
is no "padding," but, for the sake of speed, the corre- 
spondents omit all unnecessary words, such as "and* ' 
and "the," and these are filled in at our receiving offices. 
The telegram is very carefully written out to convey 
the correspondent's precise meaning. In these receiving 
offices are all the war maps, English, French, Russian, 
German, Japanese, and libraries filled with books and 
documents that may prove of value in deciphering a 
message. Lists of Russian and Japanese officials and 
war-ships and army organizations, spelled correctly and 
sent over by mail from St. Petersburg and Tokio, are on 
file. There are complete sets of all directories of every 
important city in the world. But, more valuable than 
all else, there are carefully indexed scrap-books containing 
every cable message received by The Associated Press dur- 
ing the last twenty years. These serve to illuminate every 
new event with the antecedent and the collateral history. 

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS OUTDONE IN THE PRESENT WAR 

Long before the troubles between Russia and Japan 
had reached a critical stage, I ordered Mr. Egan, then of 
our New York office, a gentleman of wide experience and 
rare ability, to Tokio to establish an independent bureau. 
He co-operated with Mr. Collins, who had left our service 
to take supervision of Reuter's Chinese service. I went 
to St. Petersburg, and was there when diplomatic rela- 
tions with Japan were broken off and the war began. I 
engaged a number of Russian correspondents, who set 
out at once for the Far East. 

One of them, Mr. Kravchenko, was received in private 
audience by the Emperor before his departure. I 
cabled directions to my assistant in charge at New York, 
and he sent a corps of men to Tokio to act under Mr. 

164 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Egan's orders. Returning from Russia, I spent a few 
days in London, and arranged with Baron de Reuter for 
a joint service in reporting the war. He had men 
scattered throughout Japan, Korea, and China who were 
instructed to serve under the leadership of Messrs. Egan 
and Collins. Thus the men of the two forces were so 
assigned as to cover the widest possible area, and the 
duplication of reports was avoided. It was also ar- 
ranged that all telegrams from Japan, Korea, and China 
should be transmitted to The Associated Press at San 
Francisco by the Pacific cable, and they were forwarded 
thence to Europe by way of New York. 

By this plan we were enabled to place correspondents 
at every point of possible interest, and their telegrams 
were transmitted much more rapidly and safely than 
if sent by the long lines through the Indian Ocean and 
the Red Sea. The great newspapers of London and 
New York promptly engaged the ablest special corre- 
spondents available and sent them to the front. Among 
these were a number of war reporters of long experience 
and international fame. It soon became apparent, 
however, that no special service could successfully com- 
pete with the Reuter- Associated Press alliance. For 
months the special men were held in a courteous im- 
prisonment at Tokio, while the Associated Press men at 
the Russian headquarters and at points of vantage in 
China and Korea were forwarding daily stories of sur- 
passing interest at each step in the great contest. In the 
end, nearly all the special men were ordered home, and 
the work of reporting the war was left to the press 
agencies. An attempt by the London Times to utilize 
despatch-boats and wireless telegraphy proved a failure. 

NOTABLE AND HEROIC PERFORMANCES 

A number of our American and English representa- 
tives were welcomed at General Kuropatkin's head- 
quarters to co-operate with our Russian correspondents. 

165 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Among these were Mr. Middleton, former chief of the 
Associated Press bureau at Paris, who died of disease at 
Mukden. He was buried with military honors ; but later, 
at my request, Viceroy Alexieff sent the remains through 
the lines, and a second burial took place at Chefoo. 

Mr. Kravchenko waited three nights and three days 
on the bluffs about Port Arthur for the sea-fight which 
Admiral Makaroff was certain to have with Admiral 
Togo. He was rewarded by a sight of the tragic destruc- 
tion of the Petropavlovsk, which he described in a tele- 
gram so graphic that, by common consent, it is held to 
be the best specimen of war reporting extant. 

Mr. Danchenko, another Russian correspondent, went 
out of Port Arthur with the last railway train to leave 
the city before the closing of the stronghold by the 
Japanese, and described his experiences with a vividness 
which awakened the enthusiastic applause of newspaper 
men throughout the world. 

Mr. Popoff, a young Russian known by his nom de 
guerre of ''KirilonV' was wounded at the battle of 
Liao-yang. He had completed on the battle-field a well- 
written pen-picture of the Japanese attack upon Stakel- 
berg's corps, when a shot pierced his lung. He had rid- 
den to a battery on the firing-line and found that, out 
of sixty gunners, forty were killed or wounded. The 
officers had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours, and 
PopofT shared with them such provisions as he had. 
" Prudence urged me to leave the spot, but I was fas- 
cinated," he wrote. And here the message ended. A 
Russian officer, who sent the telegram forward, added: 
1 ' Kiriloff was shot through the right lung while standing 
by our battery, and fell back, suffering intense agony. 
. . . He insisted upon being placed on a horse, so that 
he could get to Liao-yang and file his despatch. It took 
him five hours and a half to cover the ixve miles to the 
telegraph station. When he reached there he was so 
exhausted and weak from loss of blood that we got him 
into the hospital, although against his protest. He asked 

166 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

me to complete his message for him. I am a soldier, and 
no writer ; but I will say that after the awful fight to-day 
we were still holding our position. Japanese bodies be- 
strew all the heights. Their losses must have run into 
tens of thousands. We have lost five thousand thus far." 

Mr. Frederick McCormick, one of the American repre- 
sentatives of The Associated Press with the Russians at 
Liao-yang, also had an interesting experience. He had 
been assured by the Russian general to whom he was 
attached that the city would not be evacuated for at 
least twenty-four hours, and he entered a hospital to give 
aid to some of the wounded. While there the Japanese 
entered the place, and when he emerged he found him- 
self a prisoner. He was taken to General Oyama's head- 
quarters and closely questioned concerning the Russian 
strength. He steadfastly refused to betray any of the 
secrets of those who had trusted him, and the following 
day General Oyama released him and sent him under 
escort to Niu-chuang, whence by a circuitous and 
dangerous route he was enabled to rejoin the Russian 
forces at Mukden. 

On Mr. Middleton's death it was necessary to send a 
substitute, and Mr. Denny, who had been serving The 
Associated Press at Chefoo, was ordered to Mukden. 
He had been our correspondent at Vancouver, had edited 
one of the outgoing reports in the New York office, and had 
been chief of the Manila bureau. Quiet, modest, almost 
shy in his demeanor, he was ready to face any danger 
in the discharge of duty. To reach General Kuropat- 
kin's headquarters, he traveled in a Chinese cart through 
a territory infested by Manchurian bandits, and nar- 
rowly escaped death. 

HOW THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AT PORT ARTHUR BEAT THE 
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS 

Mr. Hagerty, from the Chicago office of The Associated 
Press, succeeded Mr. Denny at Chefoo. He was at the 

167 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

nearest cable station to Port Arthur. He organized a 
corps of Chinese junkmen, who ran the blockade and 
reported to him. There was sharp competition with a 
number of special correspondents of London newspapers, 
and he put in service every available dock-laborer in 
the port. On the arrival of a boat, day or night, he was 
notified by his uncouth assistants, and thus enabled to 
report every story that came out of the beleaguered city. 
Two Associated Press men in Port Arthur sent messages 
to him whenever possible. 

Mr. Richmond Smith was detailed to accompany the 
besieging Japanese army. He was not permitted to re- 
port daily, but was given every facility for observing the 
movements, and finally was permitted to charter a 
despatch-boat specially privileged to convey him to 
Chefoo, whence he transmitted a telegram of over five 
thousand words, which was the first authentic report 
from a newspaper eye-witness covering the operations. 

On the second day of last November Mr. Smith was 
told by the Japanese authorities that he might send from 
Chefoo his cable story of all that had happened from the 
beginning until October 29, inclusive. A boat, the 
Genbu Maru, was at his disposal for the journey, and 
was lying in the adjacent harbor of Shao-ping-tao. 
Smith at once set out. He rode to the Japanese press 
headquarters, had his message censored, and then went 
forward to the port. It was no easy ride, the twenty- 
six miles which intervened. The roads ran up and down 
the slopes of almost impassable mountains, and were in 
horrible condition. He arrived at Shao-ping-tao about 
ten o'clock at night, and found the Genbu Maru at 
anchor in the roadstead. He had been ordered to report 
to the naval officer in command of the harbor. He went 
aboard the commander's ship, and was astounded when 
that official politely but firmly notified him that under 
no circumstances could he or his despatch-boat leave 
before daybreak. This was indeed a blow, because 
Smith had private information that the Japanese, with 

168 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

their usual diplomacy, had given all the other corre- 
spondents like permission to send messages; and these 
correspondents had set out for the telegraph station at 
Yinkow, each believing himself specially favored. He 
was heart-broken. The commander took pity upon him, 
and showed him his instructions, which stated definitely 
that the Genbu Maru might sail after the fall of Port 
Arthur and not before. "These instructions can be 
changed only by an appeal to the rear-admiral at 
Shao-ping-tao and the admiral of the fleet," he said. 

This meant a delay of several days. The commander 
would not insist upon the letter of his instructions, as 
he could see from Smith's message that it was properly 
censored, and he would allow the ship to go at daylight. 
But this concession meant nothing. The other corre- 
spondents would be at Yinkow, and Smith would be 
beaten. Then, in a dramatic attitude, he took his 
precious telegram and held it over the blazing fire in the 
cabin, and said that if he could not sail until daybreak 
he would burn his message, and the important objects 
which the Japanese War and Navy departments had 
sought to attain would never be accomplished. This 
was too much, and the officer relented. He agreed that 
the Genbu Maru might go out to the guard-ship, and if 
the officer in command there would assume the re- 
sponsibility of passing it, it might sail on to Chefoo. 
Fortunately, that commander shut his eyes, and Smith 
went his way. It turned out later that the extreme 
caution exercised was due to the fact that the roadstead 
was full of mines, which were invisible at night and 
might have destroyed Smith's boat at any moment. 
He reached his destination in safety, and, as it turned 
out, his rivals were delayed, and his message was printed 
in New York and London four days ahead of those sent 
from Yinkow. It was no mean tribute to The Associated 
Press and its representative that the Japanese authorities 
read his telegram, approved it, and then sent him alone 
to Chefoo, accepting his word of honor that he would not 

169 



"M. E. S. ,J — HIS BOOK 

change it, or add to it, or disclose to any one the dis- 
position of their troops or their plan of campaign. 

Readers of American newspapers need not be told, 
however, that the best work of the war has been done 
at the capitals of the contending nations. At Tokio, 
very early in his service, Mr. Egan established a relation 
with the Government which was easily more intimate 
than that of any other journalist. His high sense of 
honor, his administrative ability, and his tact were ap- 
preciated, and soon won for him the confidence and 
esteem of the Japanese authorities. He was given the 
official reports from the generals in the field several hours 
ahead of any other correspondent, and his wishes in 
regard to the treatment accorded to Associated Press 
men at the front were respected in a remarkable manner. 
At St. Petersburg Mr. Thompson was given copies of 
the official telegrams by direct command of the Emperor, 
and was able to present a daily pen-picture of Russia 
which has won high praise from every intelligent observer. 

TRAGIC EVENTS IN BULGARIA AND SERVIA 

During the recent Macedonian outbreak trained war 
correspondents were stationed at Salonica and Monastir, 
and they were able to perfect relations with the insurgent 
leader, Boris Sarafoff, which enabled them not only to 
catch the spirit animating the struggling mountaineers, 
but in many cases personally to observe the operations. 
Secret agents were also appointed, and these trans- 
mitted messages by courier over the frontier and de- 
livered them to the Associated Press representative at 
Sofia. Meanwhile, the Agence Turque at Constanti- 
nople presented the case from the point of view of the 
Turkish Government, although naturally with less detail 
and frequently with far less accuracy. 

When the great tragedy occurred at Belgrade the first 
announcement of the assassination of King Alexander 
and Queen Draga was furnished by the Cologne Gazette. 

170 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Instantly all of the forces of The Associated Press were 
set in motion. Not alone did the Servian agency aug- 
ment its corps by the employment of additional local 
men, but Mr. Atter, chief of our Vienna bureau, hastened 
to the scene. Fortunately, Belgrade was separated from 
Austrian soil only by the Danube River; and although a 
rigid censorship was imposed within the limits of Servia, 
it was not difficult to send despatches to the Austrian 
town of Zimony, a mile distant, whence they were tele- 
graphed promptly and without interference. But, 
startling as were the events at Belgrade, there were 
other points of equal interest. With the death of King 
Alexander came the end of the Obrenovitch line, and 
Peter Karageorgevitch, head of the rival house, was 
an exile at Geneva, Switzerland. Thither American 
correspondents were despatched at once to describe the 
king-to-be, his manner of life, his associates, and to talk 
with him of his plans. Another group was assigned to 
sketch the life of his brothers and sisters and other near 
relatives, then living in Paris. The opinions of the 
foreign offices at Paris, London, Berlin, and Rome con- 
cerning him were also ascertained and reported. 

REPORTING AS A MEANS OF HUMAN PROGRESS 

Such is the process by which The Associated Press is 
writing history. Now it is an exhaustive review of the 
causes leading up to a war; again it is a scene painted 
in high lights to illumine the march of the world's 
progress. Here it is the first announcement of the 
negotiation of a treaty; there it is a thrilling interview 
with a refugee from Port Arthur, depicting all of the 
horrors of a desperate and sanguinary campaign. 

It seems hardly necessary to say that in all of this 
work The Associated Press is writing the real and endur- 
ing history of the world, and is not chronicling the trivial 
episodes, the scandals, or the chit-chat. And the 

171 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

search-light which it throws upon the world's happenings 
has a substantial moral value. The mere collection and 
distribution of news has an ethical worth. No great and 
lasting wrong can be inflicted upon the sons of men any- 
where so long as this fierce blaze of publicity is beating 
upon the scene. For, in the end, the world must know, 
and when the world knows justice must be done. The 
most absolute and irresponsible authority must finally 
yield to the demands of a great public sentiment. 

NO MONOPOLY IN NEWS 

The assertion, often made, that The Associated Press is 
a monopoly rests upon the fact that its news service is 
available to a limited number only. There could be no 
pretense that it controls the information at the point of 
origin, or that it has any advantages or exclusive rights 
in respect to the manner of transmitting its news to 
those who publish it. At the point of origin, the news, 
in order that it be news at all, must be of such moment 
that every one may have it if he chooses. None of the 
events reported by The Associated Press is a secret at 
the point of origin. The destruction of the Maine in 
Havana harbor, and the eruption that overwhelmed St. 
Pierre, were known by everybody in Havana and 
Martinique, and the rates paid to cable companies for 
transmission to New York, or to the telegraph com- 
panies for the distribution of the news throughout the 
United States, are such as are open to any one. Any 
other association may gather, transmit, and distribute 
the news on equal terms. But "A," who is a member of 
The Associated Press, may receive and publish its news, 
while "B," who is not a member, may not. Does this 
make it a monopoly? If so, it is unlike any other 
monopoly. It is the essence of the charge against other 
alleged monopolies that they are able to control the out- 
put of certain products or to ship it over quasi-public 
routes of transportation at rates not open to their com- 

172 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

petit ors, or that by reason of some unfair advantage 
which they enjoy they are able unduly to advance prices 
to the consumer. None of these objections lies against 
The Associated Press. What, then, is the allegation? 
It is this, that by reason of the magnitude of its business 
it is able to deliver news to its members cheaper than a 
rival is able to, and that it will not admit to its member- 
ship every one who applies. 

The Supreme Court of Illinois, after mature delibera- 
tion, decided that news was a commodity of such high 
public need that any one dealing in it was charged with a 
public duty to furnish it to any other one demanding it 
and ready to pay the price. The Supreme Court of 
Missouri, in an equally well-considered opinion, held in 
effect that news-gathering was a personal service, and 
to say that a public duty to serve every one attached to 
the business was to say that any one — a lawyer, for in- 
stance — was obligated to give any information of which 
he was possessed to whomsoever might demand it. 

Rivals of The Associated Press do exist, and do profess 
to furnish their members an equally valuable service. 
They have the same opportunity for securing the news 
at the points of origin, and are accorded precisely the 
same cable and telegraph tolls for its transmission. 
Their revenues are smaller, to be sure, and therefore 
their ability to cover the field is more restricted, their 
service less complete, and, naturally, since there are 
fewer to pay the bills, the cost to each is greater. But 
who, on reflection, can say that this fact constitutes The 
Associated Press an unlawful monopoly? 



SUPPLYING THE WORLD WITH NEWS * 

AN ADDRESS 
By Melville E. Stone 

1HAVE had some doubt as to the precise propriety 
of my presence here to-night. This institution is 
given over to the technicalities of the Arts and Sciences. 
But, on reflection, I think I find some warrant for my 
intrusion. I am minded that you take your name from 
that great American, who was not only a notable dip- 
lomat, statesman, scientist, and philosopher, but was 
also, in his day, the master printer of the colonies. 
And in this room you have, as if ordered for the occasion, 
side by side, Franklin's original apparatus for the study 
of electricity, and the imposing-stone which he used in 
his printing-office. It is also worthy of mention that 
another printer who for many years was a valued member 
of the institution, Mr. William Swain, one of the founders 
of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, was an active co- 
worker with Professor Morse in developing telegraphy 
and in fitting that great invention to ministry in the 
business of news-gathering. So, in the words of Paul, 
I have " waxed confident by these bonds." 

As you pick up your daily newspaper, issued to you 
for the smallest coin that is minted by the Government 
— filled as it is with a vast bulk of information gathered 
from every habitable spot on the globe — if you have 
anything like an inquisitive mind, your curiosity must 

* Presented at the annual meeting of the Franklin Institute, held 
Wednesday, January 19, 191 6. Reprinted in the Franklin Institute 
Journal, April, 1916. 

174 



SUPPLYING THE WORLD WITH NEWS 

be aroused. It must interest you to know how all this 
so-called "news," good and indifferent, important and 
trivial, from near-by places and from the uttermost 
parts, is collected, transmitted, and delivered to you at so 
small cost. Well, this I shall strive to tell you : not in an 
oration, nor even in a speech, but in a quiet, fireside talk. 

Also, it may gratify you to remember that this busi- 
ness of systematic and comprehensive news-gathering is 
an American enterprise. It originated here, and here it 
has reached its most perfect development. The work 
began in the early days of the last century. Our Revo- 
lutionary War had closed and the Federal Government 
had been successfully established. But great things were 
happening abroad. Bonaparte, after his unparalleled 
career of victory, had pushed his conquering squadrons 
over the continent, had invaded Russia, and was on his 
way to Moscow. The hour was one pregnant of great 
possibilities for our infant republic. It was natural 
that at such a moment there should be an avid call for 
news from Europe. 

It was then that Samuel Topliff , of Boston, entered the 
field. He took charge of the news-books of the Exchange 
Coffee House and began a career as a news-gatherer 
which lasted over thirty years and which, for zeal and 
efficiency, has rarely been equaled. With a small boat 
he ran into Boston harbor on the arrival of a European 
vessel, interviewed the captain, and rushed back to 
record this latest information in his news-books at the 
Coffee House. Thither merchants, and later newspaper 
reporters, repaired, and thus the news was distributed. 
To hurry this news into and through the country from 
city to city, fast pony expresses were introduced, carrier 
pigeons were trained, and rude semaphores, to wig- 
wag from hilltop to hilltop, were set up. Then, in time, 
the steamship supplanted the sailing-craft, the railroad 
usurped the functions of the stage-coach and the ex- 
presses, and, finally, the electric telegraph displaced the 
pigeons and semaphores. 

i75 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Then came the Atlantic cable. All of these instru- 
mentalities were speedily employed for the gathering 
and distributing of news. And for news the American 
people at a very early period grew voracious. Away 
back in April, 1814, Nathan Hale, a nephew of the 
patriot spy, became editor of the Boston Advertiser, and 
in his first editorial, said one of the peculiar traits of our 
national character was the insatiable appetite for news: 
even the habitual salutation on the meeting of the people 
was, "What's the news?" We became, and still are, as 
no others on earth, a news-mad people. 

As time moved on, Topliff ceased his activities, which 
were taken up by others. His methods were adopted 
in New York harbor, and later, when the Cunard Line 
made Halifax its first western port of call, that was the 
center of interest and source of supply for European 
information, which was sent to Boston and the other 
cities of the country by pony expresses, by railway 
trains, and at last by telegraph. 

There is a story of the cable which may interest you. 
The first general manager of what was called "The As- 
sociated Press" was one Dr. Jones. He was an au- 
thority upon telegraphs — at least he thought he was. 
He wrote a book on the subject. It may be found in one 
or two of the public libraries. In it he declared himself 
in no uncertain terms respecting the absurd proposal to 
connect America with Europe by a submarine cable. 
"It cannot be done," said he; "experience has shown 
that a relay every forty miles is necessary to carry the 
electric current along. And how can you have such 
relays in the bed of the ocean?" 

"There is only one way to reach Europe by teleg- 
raphy, ' ' he continued ; ' ' that is to build a line up through 
British Columbia and Alaska to the Bering Sea, and 
thence across Siberia to Moscow, and Paris, and Lon- 
don." And the telegraph company adopted this view. 
They sent two expeditions, one to British Columbia and 
the other to Siberia. They were putting up poles and 

176 




D. E. TOWN 

Louisville Herald 



Members of the Present Board of Directors— IV 



SUPPLYING THE WORLD WITH NEWS 

stringing wires, when one day a message announcing 
the successful operation of Mr. Cyrus Field's cable was 
received. In an hour their work ceased, and some 
rotted poles up near the Alaskan border, at a place still 
known as Telegraph Hill, remain as a monument of their 
error. 

One of those who went to Siberia was Mr. George 
Kennan, a telegraph operator and editor of The Asso- 
ciated Press, who there learned of the horrors of the 
prison mines, and who, in book and lecture, has since 
done so much to enlighten the world upon the subject. 

As I have said, Topliff's work was taken up by others. 
Among and chief of these was a Mr. Craig, who proved 
an aggressive, enterprising, and altogether remarkable 
man. As an independent news-gatherer, he contested 
the field with the combination of New York City papers, 
perfected about 1850, and enjoying the aid of the newly 
invented Morse telegraph lines. This combination was 
popularly named The New York Associated Press, al- 
though it never was incorporated and therefore never 
had a legal title. Its General Manager was the Dr. 
Jones of whom I have spoken. Craig won in the 
struggle and displaced Jones, and for several years 
achieved distinction in the business. 

But this New York Associated Press carried in its 
organization and methods the seeds of its own destruc- 
tion. It was really a partnership of seven newspapers. 
They gathered the news of the world and sold it to the 
newspapers of the country published outside of the 
metropolis. It was inevitable that, sooner or later, 
there should be trouble. And so there was. Out in the 
West there was organized The Western Associated Press, 
which contracted with The New York Associated Press 
for an exchange of service. This went on for some years, 
until it grew very unsatisfactory to the Westerners. 
The New York organization gathered such news as it 
pleased, and the Western papers had no voice in the 

business. In 1882, on my motion, I then being a mem- 
12 I77 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

ber and director of The Western Associated Press, we 
broke with the New York people and set out for our- 
selves. There was a sharp but very short-lived contest. 
Then there was a compromise combination. And for 
ten years this lasted. Meanwhile I went out of journal- 
ism. All the while I was convinced that the method of 
operation of these associations was fundamentally wrong. 
They were all conducted as money-making ventures — 
that is, a limited number of newspaper proprietors 
organized into an association, gathered news, and sold 
it at a profit to other newspapers or organizations of 
newspaper owners. There were a dozen or more of these 
associations. The chief one was The New York Asso- 
ciated Press. As I have said, it was a partnership of 
seven New York newspaper proprietors. This concern 
gathered primarily the foreign and Washington news, 
as well as information respecting the happenings of New 
York City. It exchanged its budget of news with the 
smaller associations scattered over the country, exacting 
a differential annual payment to represent the larger 
value of the news provided by the New-Yorkers than 
that of the news of the smaller companies. There were 
many objections to this system. It was not always fair 
from a merely financial point of view. The New- 
Yorkers held the whip -handle and naturally were led 
into using it to exact larger bonuses than were just. 
Then, too, they determined the character of the news 
they gathered, with little care for the needs or wishes 
of the papers in the interior of the country, which were 
dependent upon them. And they had an alliance with 
the telegraph company which gave them reduced rates 
and exclusive privileges, making competition practically 
impossible. In such circumstances they were easily 
able to poison the channels of news, although I think 
it right to say that there is little evidence that they 
ever did so in any considerable degree. 

Withal, it was fortunate that their ways brought dis- 
aster to their association. As I have said, the quarrel 

178 



SUPPLYING THE WORLD WITH NEWS 

with The Western Associated Press, which operated be- 
tween the Allegheny and Rocky mountains, was patched 
up in 1882, and there was comparative peace for ten 
years. In this decade, ' howe ver, new telegraph com- 
panies sprang into existence and made possible compet- 
ing news associations. So in 1892 the dominance of the 
New York people was broken, and its work was handed 
over to what was then called The United Press, an 
institution having a small number of shareholders and 
practically a close corporation. Indeed, within a short 
time it was ruled by three men, only one of whom was a 
practical journalist. Out of this there was wide-spread 
discontent, but also wide-spread confusion. My old- 
time friends and former associates in The Western Asso- 
ciated Press were particularly disturbed. They met in 
general convention in Chicago, and appointed a com- 
mittee to wait upon me and ask me to accept the post 
of General Manager of the organization which they had 
in mind. This was the beginning in purpose as well as 
in fact of what seems to me to have been, in form at 
least, an ideal news-gathering association. 

We believed that, with a self-governing people, it was 
all-important that they should be well informed: in- 
formed truthfully and honestly respecting the affairs of 
the day. There should be no chance that they should be 
misled, if it were possible to achieve such an end. 
There was a public duty, of a very high character, in- 
volved in the matter. Not alone, if you please, that the 
market reports for the investor, or the merchant, or the 
farmer should be accurate, but — deeper and more im- 
portant — in our political life, where the very business of 
government was at stake and vital, the truth, impar- 
tially, without bias or alien purpose, should be furnished 
for the guidance of the electorate. Obviously this was 
not to be secured from an agency operated by a few 
men, owing no responsibility to any one. 

Then ensued a prolonged consideration of the sub- 
ject, and it was agreed, as a result, that the best thing 

179 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

to do was to establish a nation-wide association, of a co- 
operative character, with no capital, no profits, no 
dividends — including as members papers of every con- 
ceivable political, social, and religious bent, and subject 
to the control and censorship of these varied interests. 
This, it was believed, would give the best guaranty of 
unbiased, non-partisan, and wholly impartial reports of 
current events. 

There was a four years' contest to make a success of 
such an institution. It was a case of private interest 
against public service. A large amount of money was 
expended by men who were wedded to the idea of a pure 
fountain of news service. And in the end their efforts 
were crowned with victory. This, my friends, is the 
history of the founding of The Associated Press of to-day. 
And now what is it ? And how does it operate ? First, 
there are something like nine hundred members, each 
owning a daily newspaper and each having a vote in 
determining the management. These nine hundred 
members represent every angle of every fad or ism out- 
side the walls of Bedlam. And not only each member, 
but every employee of every member — nay, more, every 
reader of every one of these nine hundred daily papers sits 
in hourly judgment on the service which The Associated 
Press is rendering. This criticism was expected by those 
of us who founded the institution, and it is not at all to 
be deplored. It is the thing which safeguards an honest 
and truthful service of news to you. There are compet- 
ing organizations, and their rivalry tends to celerity 
in gathering and presenting the news. I do not under- 
value this feature of our work, yet I regard its reputation 
for truthfulness and strict impartiality as the best asset 
of The Associated Press. It is far less important that 
you get prompt news than that you get true news. 
Every one familiar with our work knows that it is 
utterly impossible for any one in the service, from the 
General Manager to the least important agent at the 
most remote point, to send an untruthful despatch and 

1 80 



SUPPLYING THE WORLD WITH NEWS 

escape detection. You may write a biased or inaccurate 
statement for a single newspaper and "get away with it," 
but you cannot do it with the argus-eyed millions who 
read the despatches of The Associated Press. The very 
magnitute of its work tends to make truthfulness and 
impartiality imperative. I am not laying claim to any 
great virtue. I am saying that, under its system of 
operation and in view of the millions of critics passing 
upon its work, it is automatically truthful and fair. As one 
evidence of this, it is just to say that in the twenty-three 
years of the present management of the news service, 
although we have delivered untold millions of words of 
news every month, we have never paid a dollar of dam- 
ages in an action for libel, nor have we compromised any 
case. 

If we made an error, we have, and always will, correct it 
in the most straightforward and ample fashion. We have 
no squeamishness about this. I am convinced that there 
is no tyranny greater than that of the printed word, and 
that a newspaper loses nothing, but gains greatly, by an 
honest confession of error. It is not easy to establish 
a reputation for infallibility; it is very easy to secure a 
reputation for integrity, if it is deserved. And this is the 
thing that is of real value. 

But, after all, let us return to our "muttons." For, 
I dare say, you are asking, how does all this explain how 
the world's news is gathered and furnished you in a news- 
paper issued at one cent a copy? First, as to the foreign 
news, which is, of course, the most difficult to obtain 
and the most expensive. Well, in normal times there are 
four great agencies which, with many smaller and 
tributary agencies, are covering the whole world. These 
four agencies are the Reuter Telegram Company, Ltd., 
of London, which assumes responsibility for the news of 
the great British Empire, including the home land, every 
colony except Canada, and the suzerain or allied coun- 
tries, as Egypt, Turkey, and even China and Japan; 
and the Agence Havas, of Paris, taking care of the Latin 

181 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

countries, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, 
Switzerland, and South America, as well as northern 
Africa; and the Wolff Agency of Berlin, reporting the 
happenings in the Teutonic, Scandinavian, and Slav na- 
tions. These three organizations are allied with The 
Associated Press in an exclusive exchange arrangement. 
Subordinate to these agencies is a smaller one in almost 
every nation, having like exchange agreements with the 
larger companies. 

Thus it happens that there is not a place of moment 
in the habitable globe that is not provided for. More- 
over, there is scarcely a reporter on any paper in the 
world who does not, in a sense, become a representative 
of all these four agencies. Let me explain how this 
comes about. Not only have we these alliances, but in 
every important capital of every country, and in a great 
many of the other larger cities abroad, we have our own 
men, trained by long experience in our offices in this 
country. This we do because, first, we are anxious to 
view every country with American eyes; and, second, 
because a number of the agencies of which I have spoken 
are under the influence of their Governments and, there- 
fore, not always trustworthy. We rely upon them for a 
certain class of news, as, for instance, accidents by 
flood and field, where there is no reason for any misrepre- 
sentation on their part. But where it is a question which 
may involve national pride or interest, or where there is 
a possibility of partisanship or untruthfulness, we trust 
our own men. 

Now, assume that a fire has broken out in Benares, the 
sacred city of the Hindus, on the banks of the Ganges, 
and a hundred or a thousand people have lost their lives. 
Not far away, at Allahabad or at Calcutta, is a daily 
paper, having a correspondent at Benares, who reports 
the disaster fully. Some one on this paper sends the 
story, or so much of it as is of general rather than of 
local interest, to the agent of the Reuter Company at 
Calcutta, Bombay, or Madras; and thence it is cabled 

182 



SUPPLYING THE WORLD WITH NEWS 

to London and Hong-Kong, and Sydney and Tokio. 
At each of these places there are Associated Press men, 
one of whom picks it up and forwards it to New York. 

If the thing happens in Zanzibar, the story goes either 
to Cairo or Cape Town, and by the same process finds 
its way to London, and on to us in this country. Thus 
the wide world is combed for news, and in an incredibly 
short time is delivered and printed everywhere. When 
Pope Leo XIII died in Rome the fact was announced 
by an Associated Press telegram in the columns of a 
San Francisco paper in nine minutes from the instant 
when he breathed his last. And this message was re- 
peated back to London, Paris, and Rome, and gave those 
cities the first information of the event. When Port 
Arthur was taken by the Japanese in the war of 1896 
it came to us in New York in fifty minutes, although it 
passed through twenty-seven relay offices. Few of the 
operators transmitting it knew what the despatch meant. 
But they understood the Latin letters, and sent it on 
from station to station, letter by letter. 

When Peary came back from his great discovery in 
the Arctic Sea he reached Winter Harbor, on the coast of 
Labrador, and frorn there sent me a wireless message 
that he had nailed the Stars and Stripes to the North 
Pole. This went to Sydney, on Cape Breton Island, 
and was forwarded thence by cable and telegraph to 
New York. 

For its domestic service other methods are adopted. 
The territory covered includes the United States proper, 
Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines, the islands 
of the Caribbean Sea, Mexico, the Central American 
States, and, by an exchange arrangement with the 
Canadian Press, Limited, the British possessions on this 
continent. 

The organization is, as you have been told, co-opera- 
tive in its character. As a condition of membership, 
each one belonging agrees to furnish to his fellow- 
members, either directly or through the Association, and 

183 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

to them exclusively, the news of his vicinage, as gathered 
by him for his own paper. This constitutes the large 
fountain from which our American news supply is 
drawn. But, as in the case of the foreign official agen- 
cies, if there be danger that an individual member is 
biased, or if the matter be one of high importance, we use 
our own trained and salaried staff men to do the report- 
ing. For this purpose, as well as for administrative 
work, we have a bureau in every leading city. 

For the collection and interchange of this information 
we lease from the various telephone and telegraph com- 
panies, and operate with our own employees, something 
like fifty thousand miles of wires, stretching out in every 
direction through the country and touching every im- 
portant center. To reach smaller cities, the telephone is 
employed. Everywhere in every land, and every mo- 
ment of every day, there is ceaseless vigil for news. 

I am frequently asked what it costs thus to collect 
the news of the world. And I cannot answer. Our 
annual budget is between three and four million dollars. 
But this makes no account of the work done by the 
individual paper all over the world in reporting the 
matters and handing the news over to the agencies. 
Neither can I estimate the number of men and women 
engaged in this fashion. It is easy to measure the cost 
of certain specific events; as, for instance, we expended 
twenty-eight thousand dollars to report the Martinique 
disaster. And the Russo-Japanese war cost us over 
three hundred thousand dollars. 

Such, my friends, is an outline of our activities in what 
we call normal times. But these are not normal times. 
When the great European War broke on us, eighteen 
months ago, all of the processes of civilization seemed to 
go down in an hour. And we suffered in common with 
others. Our international relations for the exchange of 
news were instantly dislocated. We had been able to 
impress the Governments abroad with the value of an 
impartial and unpurchasable new service, as opposed 

184 



SUPPLYING THE WORLD WITH NEWS 

to the venal type of journalism, which was too common 
on the European continent. And in our behalf they 
had abolished their censorships. They had accorded us 
rules assuring us great rapidity in the transmission of our 
messages over their Government telegraph lines. They 
had opened the doors of their chancelleries to our corre- 
spondents, and told them freely the news as it developed. 

All these advantages ceased. The German news 
agency was prohibited from holding any intercourse with 
the English, French, or Russian organizations. Simul- 
taneously, like commerce was interdicted in the other 
countries. The virtues of impartial news-gathering at 
once ceased to be quoted at par. Everywhere, in all of 
the warring lands, the Biblical rule that "He that is not 
with me is against me" became the controlling view. 
Government telegrams were obviously very important, 
and there was no time to consider anywhere any of the 
promised speed in sending our despatches. Finally, 
censorships were imposed. This was quite proper in 
principle. Censorships are always necessary in time of 
war. But it is desirable, from every point of view, that 
they be intelligent. 

I am sorry to say that, for crass stupidity, some of the 
European censoring has never been equaled unless it was 
in the days of our Civil War. In 1862 Secretary Stanton 
instituted at Washington a military control of news 
telegrams which will ever remain a monument of imbecile 
autocracy. Those in charge of the business were wholly 
without qualifications for the work, and their antics were 
both annoying and ludicrous. For instance, information 
printed in the Washington papers without objection 
could not be sent to Boston or Chicago, but was fre- 
quently copied by the Boston and Chicago papers after 
the Washington papers had been smuggled through the 
Confederate lines to Richmond, the news printed in the 
Richmond papers, and these, in turn, smuggled back 
through the Federal lines to the North. 

Well, like doltish management has characterized much 

185 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

of the censorship abroad and has increased our dif- 
ficulties. Mark you, we fully recognize the propriety 
and need of a military censorship and have no thought 
of objecting to it. But when the business is put in the 
hands of people who, either because of their censurable 
habits or their lack of ordinary elementary education, 
are often in no condition to exercise any discriminating 
judgment, we do protest. 

Nevertheless, I feel that we have fared pretty well in 
the business of reporting this war. We have made dis- 
tinct progress in teaching the belligerents that we hold 
no brief for any of them, and, while each would much 
rather have us plead his cause, they are coming to see 
why we cannot and ought not to do so. And our men, 
I am glad to say, are everywhere respected and accorded 
as large privileges as, perhaps, in the light of the tension 
of the hour, could be reasonably asked. 

During this war we have more men and more offices in 
Europe than any other news-gathering organization ever 
had, and are expending even greater sums. Last week, 
for example, we received the speech in the Reichstag of 
Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg and the German 
Bar along Note not only by wireless, but also by the 
costly cable route through Holland and England to New 
York. In tolls alone the cost to The Associated Press of 
such matter was over one dollar a word — yet this all goes 
to you in your penny paper. 

When the Austria-Hungary Government prepared a 
reply to the American note on the sinking of the Ancona 
the reply was relayed by Associated Press men from 
Vienna to Berlin, from Berlin to The Hague, from The 
Hague to London, and from London to New York, and 
delivered, in spite of the censorships, to virtually every 
newspaper-reader in the United States thirty-six hours 
before it was decoded in the State Department at 
Washington. 

Yesterday's London Times complained that the ver- 
sion of Germany's Baralong correspondence published in 

186 



SUPPLYING THE WORLD WITH NEWS 

London was incomplete, although neutral countries re- 
ceived the full German report, and added: 

"Some idea of the importance attached by the German 
Government to the correspondence may be gleaned from 
the fact that the whole despatch was sent direct from 
Berlin by wireless to New York, where it was trans- 
mitted exact to 1,000 leading American newspapers 
through The Associated Press." 

There is much misunderstanding in the public mind 
respecting the limitations which we believe, with distinct 
propriety, have been imposed upon The Associated Press. 

Also, many people are unable to distinguish between 
Associated Press despatches and special telegrams for 
which we have no responsibility, and yet for which we 
frequently receive undeserved blame. 

There are certain things which it should do, and 
others which it must not do. It should report the im- 
portant events of the day as fairly and truthfully and 
impartially as is possible for human beings to do. It 
may not go further. It must give both sides of a ques- 
tion fair treatment. But it must not hint that either 
side is right or wrong. It may be claimed that this sort 
of negative work has no value ; that The Associated Press 
sees a great wrong and makes no sign of disapproval. 
It sees a movement for the betterment of mankind which 
is of the highest moment, and does not lend a hand to 
help the thing along. Let us see. There is an underly- 
ing belief that the American people are capable of self- 
government. If so, they must needs be able to form a 
judgment. And we conceive it to be of very great im- 
portance that the people be given the facts free from the 
slightest bias, leaving to them the business of forming 
their own judgment. Let us see what any other method of 
dealing with the news of the day must mean. If a news 
agency is to present somebody's view of the right or wrong 
of the world's happenings, whose view is it to be? And 
what assurance are we to have that the somebody's view 
is the right view ? And if it is the wrong view, what then ? 

187 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

One final word: The Associated Press, reaching as it 
does with its despatches the great body of the American 
people, has very large responsibility. And we believe 
the business of news-gathering, when properly done, has 
a distinct moral value. Notwithstanding all I have 
said about the impartiality of the Association, and not- 
withstanding the fact that it takes no part for either 
side in any controversy, it nevertheless has an enormous 
influence upon American life. Adopting the terminology 
of our medical friends, "We cure diseases upon the body- 
politic by the aseptic and not by the antiseptic method." 

Given a correct environment, we leave nature to do 
the rest. If, with the truth before them, the people choose 
to go wrong, that is their affair, not ours. We furnish 
an atmosphere of truth which necessarily leads to purify- 
ing the cesspool. We furnish the light which flames out 
into the dark places and makes impossible "treason, 
stratagem, and spoils." 

We do not hunt out scandals or gruesome tales for the 
sole purpose of pandering to vitiated desires, but bend our 
energies toward writing the real and abiding history of 
the day. The Association is a voluntary union of a 
number of gentlemen for the employment of a certain 
staff of news reporters to serve them jointly. For its 
work it derives no advantage from the Government, from 
any State or municipality, from any corporation, or from 
any person. I have no thought of saying that it is per- 
fect. The frailties of human nature attach to it. But 
of this I am certain : If, in its form of organization or its 
method of operation, it is in violation of any law, divine 
or human, it is the very last institution in this country 
to seek to avoid its responsibility. If any one can devise 
or suggest a better way to do the work it is seeking to 
do, it will be glad to adopt it, or to permit some one else 
to put it in operation. The thing it is striving for is a 
truthful, unbiased report of the world's happenings, un- 
der forms that are legal, and not only conformable to 
statutes, but ethical in the highest degree. 

188 



THE PORTSMOUTH CONFERENCE* 

AN ARTICLE REGARDING THE RUSSO-JAPANESE 
PEACE CONFERENCE OF 1905 

By Melville E. Stone 

TN his Autobiography — page 586 — Colonel Roosevelt, 
* speaking of the Peace Conference at Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire, thus refers to the Emperor of Germany : 

During the course of the negotiations I tried to enlist the aid 
of the government of one nation, which was friendly to Russia, 
and of another nation, which was friendly to Japan, in helping 
to bring about peace. I got no aid from either. I did, however, 
receive aid from the Emperor of Germany. 

Behind this lies a singularly dramatic story: The 
conference for the settlement of the Russo-Japanese War 
assembled early in August, 1905. Something like a fort- 
night before the opening Mr. Martin Egan, of the Tokio 
bureau of The Associated Press, had sent me a memoran- 
dum of the Japanese claims. It contained fifteen clauses. 

The Japanese Government was represented by Baron 
Jutaro Komura, as chief commissioner, a Harvard 
graduate of the class of 1878, who had served his country 
as minister at Washington in 1898 and had then gone 
to St. Petersburg as minister in 1900. His associate 
commissioner was Baron Kogoro Takahira, who had 
represented Japan in the United States in several ca- 
pacities — first, as secretary of legation at Washington 
in 1 881; next as consul-general at New York in 1891, 

* From The Saturday Evening Post, January 30, 19 15. Reprinted 
here with the courteous permission of the Editor. 

189 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

and finally as minister to Washington in 1900, which 
post he still held at the opening of the Portsmouth 
Conference. 

Besides these gentlemen there was an unofficial com- 
missioner for Japan who had been in the United States 
throughout the war as personal representative of Prince 
Ito. This was Baron Kentaro Kaneko, who had taken 
his degree from the Harvard Law School. 

The Russian Government was represented by Count 
Sergius Witte, who at the moment was unquestionably 
the most distinguished statesman of his country, a man 
of remarkable capacity, who had risen from a humble 
origin to a post of commanding influence in the Czar's 
Government. Associated with him was Baron Roman 
Rosen, who had been Russian minister at Washington 
for a number of years, and had then been transferred to 
Tokio, where he was serving as minister at the opening 
of the Russo-Japanese contest. 

All of these commissioners were personal friends of 
mine, and after their arrival in this country I had fre- 
quent interviews with them. The conditions imposed 
by the Japanese were fairly well understood by both 
sides and were naturally the subject of consideration 
between us. 

At the outset, or within a day or two after his arrival 
in New York, Witte told me in a most emphatic way 
that he had no sympathy whatsoever with President 
Roosevelt's efforts to secure peace. At the moment he 
believed the time to be most inopportune. He was con- 
vinced that the Japanese had passed the high-water mark 
and had reached a point where they had neither the men 
nor the money with which to continue the conflict. 

He firmly believed that if the Emperor of Russia had 
refused to accept the Roosevelt invitation, and had gone 
on fighting, the tide would have turned and Russia 
would have won. As to any proposition for the payment 
of an indemnity, Russia would never pay a penny. It 
was well understood that the Japanese proposed to 

190 






THE PORTSMOUTH CONFERENCE 

claim eight hundred million dollars; but Witte said that 
if suqh a demand were made a condition of peace there 
would be nojpeace. 

1 ' Wrry-should We pay an indemnity ? " he asked. ' ' The 
Japanese have never invaded Russia. No Japanese has 
ever set foot on Russian soil. The contest has been 
fought out on Chinese soil and no claim for indemnity 
has ever been recognized, nor can one ever be recog- 
nized, unless the victorious party to a war has actually 
invaded the enemy's territory.*' 

The conference went into session almost at once, and 
most of the points at issue were met, discussed, and 
settled in due course; but finally the commissioners 
came to a deadlock on the question of indemnity. 

On Friday, August 25, an impasse having been 
reached, Witte and Rosen received peremptory orders 
from their sovereign to quit the conference on the follow- 
ing Tuesday. Whereupon they packed up their belong- 
ings and made ready to leave at a moment's notice. 

At that time I was living at the Lotos Club, on Fifth 
Avenue, in the city of New York; and at an early hour 
on the following Sunday morning I received a telephone 
message from Baron Kaneko, who asked whether he 
might see me on an important matter — he thought, 
perhaps, that I was able to influence the Russian com- 
missioners, and so on. He was living at the Leonori, 
an apartment-house on the corner of Madison Avenue 
and Sixty- third Street. 

As the Lotos Club was a rather public place for a con- 
ference, I told him I would go to his apartment; and 
I went there shortly before noon. We entered at once 
on a consideration of the critical situation at Portsmouth. 
He asked me whether I thought the Russian Government 
would pay any indemnity. He was impressed with the 
idea that Witte and Rosen were bluffing, and that 
Russia would pay something if by doing so she could 
save her face. 

He had a number of suggestions along this line, and 

191 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

asked whether I thought the Russians would give com- 
pensation under some other guise, or whether there was 
not some form that could be adopted to satisfy the 
Russian amour propre. 

"For example," he said, "Russia might pay for the 
care of Russian prisoners in Japan or for the return of 
some part of the South Manchurian Railroad line." 

I told him I was positive the Russian refusal to pay 
money was final and that Russia could not be moved 
from its determination in this regard. He suggested that 
Witte had already said he was willing to pay something — 
for example, a sum equal to the amount paid by the 
United States for Alaska. 

To this I replied that the amount paid for Alaska 
was something like seven million dollars, and that the 
payment of such a sum on a claim of eight hundred 
million was so ridiculously small that Japan could not 
afford to take it. 

"Moreover," I added, "you have settled every ques- 
tion except that of money, and it now becomes important 
for Japan to consider whether she can afford to go on 
fighting over a mere matter of indemnity." 

Baron Kaneko was quick to say that Japan recog- 
nized that point, and added: "We shall never be placed 
in the attitude of fighting for mere money. But the 
situation is very serious ; the conference is at a standstill, 
and day after to-morrow the Russian commissioners will 
break up the conference. I fully recognize the force 
of what you say; but now, if we take the ground that 
we will not go on with the war merely to enforce the pay- 
ment of indemnity there is really no alternative except to 
waive all claim on Russia for our tremendous losses. 

I I But suppose we waive this point, ' ' he went on ; " our 
immediate necessity is to hold the conference together. 
Witte and Rosen are about to quit. I take it they have 
no sympathy with the conference anyhow, and are quite 
ready and glad to seize on the authority given them to 
end our negotiations." 

192 




JOHN R. RATHOM 
Providence Journal 



Members of the Present Board of Directors— V 



THE PORTSMOUTH CONFERENCE 

"There is one man who can intervene and save the 
situation," I replied. 

"Whom do you mean?" Kaneko asked. 

"The German Emperor." 

"But," said he, "you know he is not our friend. You 
cannot have forgotten the cartoon of the ' Yellow Peril ' 
which he drew." 

"That is all very true," I replied; "but he is more 
anxious for peace at this hour than to emphasize any 
sentimental views he may have concerning the 'Yellow 
Peril.' He is a close friend of the Russian Emperor, 
and I have no doubt he would be glad, if he were 
appealed to and if he were advised that Japan was 
prepared to abandon her claim for indemnity, to in- 
tercede with the Czar to prolong the conference and 
reach a settlement." 

By this time we had gone to luncheon and Baron 
Kaneko asked how the German Emperor could be 
reached. I replied that it was not a difficult matter 
and that I should be glad to arrange it. He asked me 
to do so. 

Baron Speck von Sternberg, the German ambassador ,, 
was not in America at the time, and in his absence Baron 
von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen, counselor and first 
secretary of the Embassy, was acting as charge. The 
latter was spending the summer at Lenox and I pro- 
ceeded at once to get in touch with him. Leaving the 
luncheon table at the Leonori, I stepped to the telephone 
and asked Long Distance to connect me with Baron 
von Bussche. 

There was some delay about the connection, however, 
and as I had another engagement I left word to have the 
call transferred to me at the Lotos Club. I then took my 
leave, Baron Kaneko agreeing that he would remain at 
his apartment and await word from me. A little later, 
at the Lotos Club, I received word that Baron von 
Bussche was at the other end of the telephone wire. I 
told him I wanted to talk to him about a very important 
13 193 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

diplomatic matter and asked how soon he could come to 
New York. 

He replied that he could reach the city by five o'clock 
that afternoon; he realized that it must be a matter of 
considerable importance and asked no questions, but 
agreed to come to the Lotos Club at the earliest possible 
moment. I suggested that he bring with him his dip- 
lomatic code book. 

I then telephoned Baron Kaneko and asked him to 
come to the club, which he did. I told him of Von 
Bussche's coming and said I had now gone as far as I 
could without notifying President Roosevelt about what 
we had in mind. He aquiesced, and I called up Oyster 
Bay and asked the President whether I might go out at 
once and talk with him about a very important matter 
connected with the Portsmouth Conference. He replied 
that he would be very glad to have me come, and soon 
after I was at the President's house on Sagamore Hill. 

I told Mr. Roosevelt all that had happened, and he 
expressed himself as highly gratified at the course mat- 
ters had taken. I then suggested that he write a mes- 
sage to the Kaiser, and he started to prepare one. At 
first he dictated and I wrote, but when I questioned the 
form of his message he suggested that he do the writing 
and I the dictating. The following is the message that 
resulted : 

August 27, 1905. 

Mr. Bussche: Please cable His Majesty the Emperor from me 
as follows: 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

Your Majesty: Peace can be obtained on the following terms: 
Russia to pay no indemnity whatever, and to receive back the 
north half of Sakhalin, for which it is to pay Japan whatever amount 
a mixed commission may determine. This is my proposition, to 
which the Japanese have assented reluctantly and only under strong 
pressure from me. The plan is for each of the contending parties 
to name an equal number of members of the commission, and for 
they themselves to name the odd member. The Japanese assert 
that Witte has in principle agreed that Russia should pay something 

194 



THE PORTSMOUTH CONFERENCE 

to get back the north half of Sakhalin, and, indeed, he intimated 
to me that they might buy it back at a reasonable figure, something 
on the scale of that for which Alaska was sold to the United States. 
These terms, which strike me as extremely moderate, I have not 
presented in this form to the Russian Emperor. I feel that you 
have more influence with him than I or any one else can have. As 
the situation is exceedingly strained and the relations between the 
plenipotentiaries critical to a degree, immediate action is necessary. 
Can you not take the initiative by presenting these terms at once to 
him? Your success in the matter will make the entire civilized 
world your debtor. This proposition virtually relegates all the 
unsettled issues of the war to the arbitration of a mixed commission 
as outlined above; and I am unable to see how Russia can refuse 
your request if in your wisdom you see fit to make it. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 



The second sentence of the letter was inserted, after 
deliberation, as a diplomatic phrase to avoid saying that 
the offer came from the Japanese. 

At the President's suggestion I took this message, 
which was in his own handwriting, to one of his secre- 
taries, Mr. Barnes, who was on duty at a hotel in Oyster 
Bay, and Mr. Barnes made copies of it for the President's 
file and for me. I then hurried back to New York, 
and about five o'clock was joined by Kaneko and Bussche 
at the Lotos Club. 

It then occurred to me that there was one feature of 
the subject which had not been provided for: Baron 
Kaneko was, as I have said, an unofficial commissioner, 
and it dawned on me that I must assure myself of his 
authority before, by any act of mine, I committed 
either the President of the United States or the German 
Emperor to his assurance that the Japanese Government 
would waive its claim for indemnity. 

I frankly told him of my dilemma and said that I 
could not go further without definite evidence of his 
authority. He recognized the propriety of my sugges- 
tion and asked me to telephone Baron Komura, at 
Portsmouth, and receive his personal assurance on the 
subject. I felt that though this was but a matter of 

i95 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

form it was essential; and I accordingly put in a long- 
distance call for Baron Komura. 

To save time Baron Bussche had gone into another 
room at the club and was converting as rapidly as he 
could the Roosevelt message into code. For a time we 
had no response to our call for Portsmouth; and while 
we were waiting I called up President Roosevelt to tell 
him of what I had done. He expressed his hearty ap- 
proval of the precaution. Hour after hour passed with- 
out a word from Komura. Bussche at length finished 
coding the message and was impatient to transmit it to 
Berlin. He finally decided to cable it, with an explana- 
tion of the circumstances. 

Late that night, despairing of reaching Komura by 
telephone, I telegraphed one of our correspondents at 
Portsmouth and in a guarded message asked him to wire 
me concerning Baron Kaneko's authority. The reply 
came at length; and to say the least it gave me pause, 
for it was to the effect that Baron Takahira had informed 
the correspondent that Kaneko was in no way authorized 
to speak for the commission. Naturally I was dum- 
founded at this turn of affairs; and though I could not 
believe that Baron Kaneko had deliberately tricked us, 
I made haste to report the news to President Roosevelt. 

My news was as much of a surprise to the President 
as it had been to me. It was difficult for us to reconcile 
matters. For days we had both been receiving Baron 
Kaneko as though he were fully empowered to speak 
for his Government, and we were loath to believe that 
such was not the case; but in the face of the message 
from Takahira what were we to believe ? Finally it was 
decided that the President should send a frank statement 
of what we had done to Baron Komura and see whether 
he could not shed some light on the matter. This mes- 
sage was the following : 

Oyster Bay, N. Y. 

My Dear Baron Komura: I have had, as you know, a number of 
interviews with Baron Kaneko since your arrival in this country. 

196 



THE PORTSMOUTH CONFERENCE 

These have always been held at his request and in the assumption 
that he was acting for you, this having been my understanding of 
what you said in our conversation when you were out here at my 
house, and when the matter of keeping me informed of what was being 
done at Portsmouth arose. 

Moreover, he has frequently transmitted to me copies of your 
telegrams, evidently written to be shown to me — for instance, such 
telegrams of yours were inclosed in his notes sent to me yesterday 
and the day before yesterday, August twenty-sixth and twenty- 
seventh. I have, therefore, assumed that I could safely accept 
whatever he told me as being warranted by his understanding with 
you. To my astonishment a telegram was received by The Associated 
Press from Portsmouth last night, purporting to contain statements 
from Minister Takahira to the effect that Baron Kaneko was not 
authorized to see me, and containing, at least by implication, an 
expression of surprise that I should have treated him as having any 
such authorization. 

The Manager of The Associated Press refused to allow this de- 
spatch to go out, and I take it for granted that it was false and that 
Mr. Takahira had given utterance to no such expression. But in view 
of its receipt I retraced a cable I had prepared to send His Majesty 
the German Emperor if Baron Kaneko approved, this cable having 
been prepared by me after consultation with Mr. Stone, who had 
himself seen Baron Kaneko as well as Baron Bussche, of the German 
Embassy, and who understood it was along the line you desired. 
[Here was inserted the cablegram as given above.] 

At the end Baron Bussche stated to the Kaiser that if the Czar 
could be persuaded to come to these terms I should at once publicly 
give him the credit for what had been accomplished, and try in every 
way to show that whatever of credit might attach to bringing the 
negotiation to a successful conclusion should come to him in the most 
public and emphatic manner. This was added at my suggestion, 
for I need not tell you, my dear Baron, that my sole purpose has 
been to try to bring about peace, and I am absolutely indifferent 
as to anything that is said about me in connection with the matter. 

But of course under these circumstances I shall not send the cable 
unless I am definitely assured by you that this cable has your approval. 
Moreover, in view of the statement credited to Minister Takahira, 
I do not feel that Baron Kaneko should communicate with me any 
longer unless I am assured by you that it is your desire that he 
should do so and that he speaks with authorization from you. 
Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt. 

Monday was a day of great activity and great anxiety 
in many places and in many ways. In Tokio the Elder 

197 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Statesmen, against great obstacles, but with high courage 
and infinite wisdom, were moving straight on in their 
effort to secure an honorable peace. They were fully ad- 
vised of the situation at Portsmouth. They knew that, 
on the preceding Wednesday, Komura had made his last 
despairing effort to enforce the demand for indemnity. 
He had reduced the claim from eight hundred million to 
six hundred million dollars, but had made no impression ; 
and, instead, had noted that the Russian commissioners 
were ready and anxious to seize on any demand for 
tribute as an excuse to end the whole business -and go on 
with the conflict. At home they were confronted with a 
populace burning with patriotism, glorying in their un- 
exampled triumph, and fully convinced of the ability of 
their nation to cope with any measure of resistance on 
the part of their enemy. At the moment, Marquis Ito 
proved to be the controlling force and touched the 
highest level of his extraordinary career. Under his 
commanding influence Japan refused to make monetary 
compensation a sine qua non in her negotiations. She 
braved the danger of a revolting war spirit, accepted the 
burden of her immense war debt, and instructed her 
plenipotentiaries in America to sign a treaty of peace 
on the terms already agreed to. 

In Russia the situation was no less complicated. 
There, too, was a war party confident and insistent. 
After the series of disasters that culminated at Mukden, 
Kuropatkin had been relieved as General-in-Chief of the 
Manchurian army and Linievitch had taken his place. 
The new commander had a great record as a warrior; 
he had been first lieutenant to the great Skobeleff and 
shared in his glory. During the half-year that had fol- 
lowed his appointment he had received a hundred thou- 
sand fresh troops and had fully reorganized his army. 
Now he was anxious to flesh his sword and had no sort 
of doubt of his ability to wipe out his country's disgrace. 
With his associate officers he telegraphed the Czar in 
terms almost disrespectful. He said: 

198 






THE PORTSMOUTH CONFERENCE 

I have the honor to inform Your Majesty that all my comrades 
and myself, after fully discussing the arguments for peace and the 
respective positions of the opposing armies, unanimously and reso- 
lutely voted for the continuation of the war until such time as the 
Almighty shall crown the efforts of our brave troops with success. 
It is no time to talk of peace after the battles of Mukden and of 
Tsushima. 

The Czar himself, but a few days before, had issued 
a manifesto declaring that he would consent to no dis- 
honorable peace. Yet there were countervailing in- 
fluences that must be reckoned with; threatening revo- 
lutionary movements were observable in his European 
domains, and the rank and file of his Manchurian forces 
were not so enthusiastic for war as were his generals. 

It was at this juncture that the German Emperor 
did his most effective work. Before the peace com- 
missioners had assembled at Portsmouth he had held an 
advisory conference with the Czar on the Russian royal 
yacht in the Baltic Sea. Now, with Bussche's telegram 
before him, he sought once more to calm the troubled 
waters. There were telegrams flying back and forth 
between Berlin and St. Petersburg; and, as a result on 
this fateful Monday, Witte and Rosen received a forty- 
word cable from their imperial master which held them 
in leash until the final purpose of the Japanese should be 
disclosed. 

In New York and Oyster Bay there was a day of im- 
patient waiting. Early in the morning we learned that 
our failure to get word from Komura by telephone was 
due to a heavy storm, which put the wires out of com- 
mission. Later I learned that the disturbing message 
which quoted Takahira as repudiating Kaneko was due 
to the fact that for prudential reasons my own telegram 
of inquiry had been almost cryptic. I had been so brief 
and had disclosed so little and asked so much that it was 
not understood; and a worse than non-committal reply 
had resulted. 

I made another visit to Roosevelt ; and after discussing 

199 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

the situation he and I agreed that I should announce 
through The Associated Press that evening that the 
Japanese had determined to waive their claim for 
indemnity — this with a view to committing them irrev- 
ocably to the pledge that Kaneko had given Bussche 
and myself. 

This despatch was sent out, and of course reached 
Portsmouth instantly. As it was read to Komura and 
Takahira, they declined to say anything. Witte and 
Rosen thought it a ruse and went on with their prepara- 
tions to quit the place the next day. Their plans were 
well laid. If, as they expected, there should be any 
further pressing for indemnity on Tuesday, Witte was 
to leave the conference-room at 11.50 a.m., and in a 
casual way call to one of his secretaries the following 
Russian command, "Pochlite sa moymy rousskymy 
papyrossamy" ("Send for my Russian cigarettes"). 

This was a signal; the secretary told off for the task 
was to step to a private telephone connecting with their 
headquarters at the Wentworth Hotel, in Portsmouth, 
repeat the words to a member of the mission stand- 
ing at the other end, and a single code word, already 
agreed on, should be instantly cabled to St. Peters- 
burg. On receipt of this word in the Russian capital 
the signal was to be flashed to General Linievitch, 
and a battle of the centuries was to begin. A million 
men were to participate. 

Such was the plan and such the expectation on Monday 
night. 

On Tuesday morning the London Times and the Lon- 
don Telegraph led off in their despatches from Portsmouth 
with the comments of their respective correspondents. 
These were George W. Smalley, of the Times, and 
Dr. E. J. Dillon, of the Telegraph. 

They spent their wrath in ridicule and denunciation of 
The Associated Press, which had assumed to know all 
things and had asserted that the Japanese were about to 
withdraw their claim for indemnity. Such a thing was 

200 



THE PORTSMOUTH CONFERENCE 

inconceivable. There would be further negotiations, 
said they, and Heaven alone knew what would result. 

On Tuesday morning Roosevelt received a message 
from Komura assuring him that Kaneko was a quite 
responsible gentleman, and that we had made no mistake 
in receiving and in dealing with him. With this we 
awaited the result from the naval-stores room at Kittery 
Point, five miles from Portsmouth, with intense interest. 

Up there it was a situation that, in point of dramatic 
interest, has rarely been equaled. The conference met. 
The utmost secrecy respecting the proceedings prevailed. 
Then the fateful hour of eleven-fifty arrived. And 
Witte came from the room — but not to ask for his Rus- 
sian cigarettes. Instead, with flushed face and snapping 
eyes, he uttered, not the expected five Russian words, 
but two — "Gospoda, mirl" ("Gentlemen, peace!"). 

When the conference gathered, Satoh, the Japanese 
secretary, calmly rose and announced that, obedient 
to instructions from their Government, the claim for 
any indemnity was withdrawn; Japan would not fight 
for mere money, and peace was possible on the terms 
already accepted and agreed on by the Russian 
commissioners. 



THE A. P. AND ITS MALIGNERS* 

By Melville E. Stone 

IN DEALING with this subject I want to call the 
attention of our critics to two publications which 
have not received at their hands the attention they 
deserve. The first is entitled ' ' Pseudologia Politica, or 
a Treatise of the Art of Political Lying." It is to be 
found in Volume VI of the ordinary edition of Swift's 
works. The other is called "Maxims on the Popular 
Art of Cheating," a posthumous essay by Augustus 
Tomlinson, a mythical professor of moral philosophy 
in a mythical German university. It appears as an ap- 
pendix to Lord Lytton's "Paul Clifford." Both of these 
books are easily accessible. Yet there is evidence that 
some people are not as familiar with them as they might 
profitably be. They were written years ago, but the 
excuse which Lord Lytton offered in 1840 for the presen- 
tation of one of them still holds good. He said, "At 
an age when Hypocrisy stalks, simpers, sidles, struts, 
and hobbles through the country, Truth also begins to 
watch her adversary in every movement, and I cannot 
but think these lessons peculiarly well timed." 

As to the practical utility of lying and cheating, I 
suppose, from my experience with them, that the critics 
of The Associated Press will, at heart, generally agree. 
Even from the imprisoned point of view of an Episcopal 
clergyman, the witty Dr. Clinton Locke, of Chicago, 
used to solemnly declare that " a lie was an abomination 
unto the Lord, but a very present help in time of trouble." 

* An Address delivered at Chautauqua, August 2, 1912. 
202 



THE A. P. AND ITS MALIGNERS 

And a lie in respect of a public matter is said to be less 
reprehensible than one in respect of a private matter. 
For instance, Lecky, the author of the " History of 
European Morals," has observed that "in practical 
politics, public and private morals will never absolutely 
correspond." And Lord Acton, who was perhaps the 
closest student of history of the last half century, 
holding the same view, says, "The principles of public 
morality are as definite as those of the morality of private 
life, but they are not identical." 

If this be the true view, every cheerful and zealous 
muckraker who, as John of Patmos puts it, "loveth 
and maketh a lie," about The Associated Press will owe 
me a debt of gratitude for calling his attention to these 
two little handbooks, by the study of which he may 
so qualify himself as to do his work as an artist rather 
than as a bungler; so that, as the late Dr. Edward 
Everett Hale said, "he will cease to be a chipped-off 
reformer who disgraces the name and will become a 
real idealist." Then, indeed, as Swift says, that noble 
and useful art of lying will no longer lie in rubbish and 
confusion. 

Time will not permit a full exposition of these valuable 
books. Nor is it necessary. A few draughts from the 
fount of wisdom will excite curiosity, whet interest and 
tempt our critics to the source of the vitalizing waters. 
The Swift book is in eleven chapters and is an able de- 
fense of public mendacity, with hints and rules for the 
guidance of the ambitious falsifier. "The abundance of 
political lying," says the author, "is a sure sign of true 
English liberty." This is a direct challenge to Richard 
Steele, who in the Taller characterized the lying critic 
as a "fly that feeds on the sore part and would have 
nothing to live on if the whole body were in health." 
Using the present-day phrase, he wanted to "swat the 
carrion-carrying fly." 

But Swift was wiser. He saw what an insupportable 
tyranny we should have if political lying were denied to 

203 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

those striving to make advancement in the art. He 
admonished his pupils, however, that for their own 
sakes their "lies should, at least, be plausible." They 
should comport with known facts. One should not say 
of a noted miser, for instance, that he had given away 
all at once five thousand pounds; twenty or thirty 
pounds would be enough. Finally, he proposed a Liars' 
Trust, where, for example, perhaps a captain of the 
marines might co-operate with a successful fisherman. 

Tomlinson is equally attractive and instructive. He 
quotes Lord Coke's saying that "to trace an error to its 
fount ainhead is to refute it," and he cautions his cony- 
catching followers to be careful in dealing with one who 
is liable to insist upon investigation. 

Now The Associated Press has been under fire for 
years. But the trouble has been that its critics have not 
taken pains to qualify themselves, as they might have 
done by reading the two little books I have mentioned. 
They have been clumsy blunderers in the noble art. 
For instance, it was unwise in one critic, when a couple 
of years ago he tried to get me, as they got Stephen 
in the olden days, to ask if I had arranged for Taft and 
Harriman a secret midnight conference as their private 
trains met somewhere in Georgia. 

The thing lacked verisimilitude. A true artist would 
have seen how futile it was to try to make any one be- 
lieve such a meeting had taken or could take place. 
Every trainman, telegraph operator, or train-despatcher 
would have been gabbling about it. But the most un- 
fortunate feature of all was that it afterward was dis- 
closed that there were half a dozen newspaper men on 
Taft's train, one of them being our critic's own corre- 
spondent. Do you imagine that a qualified student of 
Swift, or Tomlinson, would have made such a mistake? 

Again, it was not the work of a good craftsman who 
more than a year later, and when this little fiction had 
been fully exposed, laughed at and forgotten, revived 
the story in a new and more absurd form in a Chicago 

204 



THE A. P. AND ITS MALIGNERS 

newspaper. Then the offense charged was not the 
arranging for the mythical conference, but the sup- 
pression of the news of the meeting which never took 
place. And coupled with it was the allegation that there 
was a secret telephone wire connecting J. P. Morgan's 
office with my room. This also was the work of a man 
who had not yet achieved the position of a 'prentice 
hand in the noble art of misstatement. Even the office 
boys in our New York bureau were better informed. 

The Government trust prosecutor wrote a letter 
charging that the general manager of The Associated 
Press was owned by the Standard Oil people. It took a 
long time to have the thing come to the surface, but 
when it did there was that going back to the fountain- 
head against which Professor Tomlinson warned his 
pupils who were trying to become successful rogues, 
and then the poor man had to write an abject retraction 
and apology. 

Senator La Follette made a thrust at the organization 
in his Weekly. He was notified at once of the injustice 
of his article. It was most inartistic that he should 
wait more than seven months before he made an amende 
and not one of Swift's or Tomlinson 's well- trained 
pupils but would have done better when caught than to 
say, as did La Follette, ' ' In this instance The Associated 
Press played square." I may say of this correction, as 
did John P. Hale of ex-President Pierce. When the 
Rebellion broke out Pierce was doubtful as to the course 
he would pursue. After much delay he pronounced in 
a speech in favor of the Union. Hale followed, and 
simply said of Pierce's declaration as I must of La 
Follette's apology, "It was late, reluctant, and alto- 
gether unimportant." 

Speaker Clark has another view of the proprieties. 
In the heat of the contest before the meeting of the 
Baltimore convention, he accused The Associated Press 
of bias in favor of Governor Wilson. At the same mo- 
ment the Wilson people were charging in their literature 

205 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

that the organization leaned toward Clark. Each of the 
other candidates was sure he was ''getting the worst of 
it." The facts were made plain to all, and it was quite 
evident that none had any just cause for grievance; 
that The Associated Press service, however it differed 
from the exaggerated claims of the campaign managers, 
and however unpalatable, therefore, it frequently was, 
was nevertheless absolutely truthful. 

Then Mr. Clark promptly and manfully wrote a letter 
in which he said: "I believe I ought to withdraw the 
charges which I preferred in anger. I have concluded 
that I had no cause of complaint." 

Such are examples of the kind of criticism to which 
The Associated Press is subjected. Sometimes the 
critics are mendacious ; sometimes they are so influenced 
by partisanship that they are incapable of being fair- 
minded; sometimes they are unable to discriminate 
between Associated Press despatches and special tele- 
grams for which we have no responsibility. 

No one will claim perfection for our service. The 
frailties of human nature necessarily have some in- 
fluence. But there are certain underlying truths which 
cannot be ignored. It is the only co-operative news- 
gathering agency in the world. It was founded by a 
band of earnest men who contested the field with an 
organization controlled by three men. This band of 
men felt that the power lodged with these three men was 
so great as to constitute a menace. They felt that it 
was far safer to put the power in the hands of the great 
body of newspaper people, of every shade of political 
partisanship, religious belief, social affiliation, and com- 
mercial tie. 

So it comes about that The Associated Press despatches 
are under the censorship, not of three men answerable to 
no one, but primarily of eight hundred and fifty news- 
paper proprietors constituting the membership ; secon- 
darily, of every editor on each of these eight hundred and 
fifty papers; and finally, of the untold millions of readers 

206 



THE A. P. AND ITS MALIGNERS 

who depend upon these despatches for their daily 
information respecting every phase of human activity. 

No institution that I know of so wears its heart upon 
its sleeve. You require no explanation respecting its 
service from me. You read it every day, and what it 
is, for truth or for error, you may determine. The inti- 
mation that any one can successfully use its service for 
an improper end is as stupid as it is wicked. Until 
some one of a responsible character can present evidence 
of such use from the despatches which you and all 
America sees daily, such an accusation deserves no. 
consideration. 

The interesting but noisy young man from Grub 
Street, who, with marked literary mien, half -lighted 
cigarette and unspeakable cocksureness, is hunting about 
for something to reform at a reasonable rate per maga- 
zine page, will be disappointed when he tackles this 
business. However assertive his style, or fertile his 
imagination, he cannot do much with it. It lacks the 
elements out of which to create the necessary mystery, 
the startling disclosure, and the profitable scandal. 
Obviously, there can be no mystery about the character 
of Associated Press despatches. They are known and 
read of all men, and the judgment of one person respect- 
ing them is about as good as that of another. 

While there is no secret about it, and while the col- 
lection and distribution of news by a co-operative agency 
is a perfectly simple and proper undertaking, there is no 
constant or wide-spread advertisement of the method 
of operation, and little is known of it by the public. 
The names of special correspondents are heralded in 
flaming type; the men of The Associated Press, how- 
ever conscientious or capable, secure no such fame. 
But, after all, this means little. It is not who does the 
work, nor how he does it, but what the nature of his 
work is, that is of importance. 

So also it follows that there can be no startling dis- 
closures about the character of our despatches. To say, 

207 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

as one writer did, that he thought he saw a "slant" in 
favor of the trusts, or as another did that he had his 
doubts because "it is asking a good deal in this day 
of publicity, to expect us to believe that the sublime 
pawnbrokers who own this country have overlooked 
any such chance to sway the public mind" — such final 
judgments can have little weight with the wide-awake 
and sharply critical newspaper men and reading public, 
whose opportunities for deciding are undeniably as good 
as those of the writers quoted. 

And so we go on unscathed. Let us bid Godspeed 
to all real reformers. But let us be careful to dis- 
criminate between the regenerate and the degenerate. 
Let us climb the delectable mountains, but let us be 
very sure they are the mountains, that the roses by our 
pathway are real roses, and that the shepherds at the 
top are real shepherds and not highwaymen. 




M. H. DE YOUNG 
ALBERT P. LANGTRY 



CHARLES H. GRASTY 

STEPHEN O'MEARA 



Former Directors of The Associated Press- 



'THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER* 

By Melville E. Stone 

E.DIES AND GENTLEMEN: 
I shared with you in the pleasure and profit de- 
rived from the lecture of Mr. Samuel Bowles f upon the 
ethics of journalism. It was a timely and convincing 
sermon on what Colonel Roosevelt has aptly called 
"The Old Moralities." We American newspaper men 
should be forever mindful of the scriptural injunction 
that "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be 
much required; and to whom men have committed 
much, of him they will ask the more." We belong to a 
privileged class. It was not always so. A struggle of 
two centuries was necessary to achieve for us the liberty 
which we enjoy — a liberty which is practically unique 
in its character. The newspaper as you and I know it 
is distinctly of American origin and American growth. 
There is nothing like it in any other place on earth. The 
nearest approach is, of course, to be found in England, 
but if you carefully study the English papers, you will 
agree that their resemblance to American newspapers 
is not so close as to make them twin enterprises. The 
newspapers of France, Germany, Italy, and Austria, 
with rare exceptions, are not newspapers at all, but are 
the mouthpieces of individual publicists, or, as Philpot 
Curran, the Irish orator, says, are "hodmen to the 
political architects." The so-called newspapers of the 

* An address delivered before the students of the Pulitzer School of 
Journalism, Columbia University, January 12, 1914. 

t The late Editor of the Springfield Republican, who had previously 
lectured before the school. 

H 209 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

rest of the world are practically negligible quantities. 
Here and there, as in the case of two daily papers of 
Buenos Aires, the Cologne Gazette, and the Temps of 
Paris, there are journals which rise to the level of some 
resemblance to the products of our effort in America. 
I should also include the papers of Canada and Australia. 
But these isolated cases constitute the exceptions which 
prove the rule. 

Under the old theory of government when the view 
was that the citizens were created for the Government 
and not the Government for the citizens, obviously there 
could be no free speech and no free press. But back 
in Holland another view originated, that not only did 
Governments derive their just powers from the consent 
of the governed, but that indeed the true principle went 
beyond that, and that Governments could rightfully 
exist only as the agents through which the individual 
citizen should be guaranteed and protected in the largest 
liberty of action consistent with his relation to his fellow- 
men. Government then became but a social contract. 
A necessary corollary of this freedom of the citizen and 
of this theory of government by and for the people was 
a free press. It was John Milton, who after visiting 
Holland and catching the spirit of that country, wrote 
his wonderful plea for unlicensed printing, which Augus- 
tine Birrell has well said was the noblest pamphlet in 
"Our English, the language of men ever famous in the 
achievements of liberty." Through many years of 
storm and stress, with indictments and arrests and jail- 
ings of editors, we carried on the conflict until, in the 
great trial of Peter Zenger, in this city of New York, we 
settled the issues forever. The right thereafter to print 
our news and our views without censorship was practi- 
cally unchallenged. Twice the State Constitution framed 
in Massachusetts, when offered to the people, was rejected 
because it contained no provision guaranteeing a free 
press. Finally by the adoption of the First Amend- 
ment to the Federal Constitution it was provided that 

2IO 



THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 

there should never be anything done to abridge the 
freedom of speech or the freedom of the press in this 
country. 

Our fathers at the beginning recognized thus early 
how essential this right of speech and right of printing 
was to our American liberty. But it carries with it a 
reciprocal responsibility of which, if we be at all fair- 
minded, we must ever be aware. A distinguished Rus- 
sian has spoken of "the despotism of the printed phrase" 
— and it is undeniably true that a thing in print is far 
more pregnant of possibilities than the same thing in 
ordinary speech. To us, men have committed much, and 
of us they will ask the more. We are bound to do 
something more than to print and sell newspapers for 
profit. We owe a duty to our country, which is larger 
than that we owe to our counting-rooms, and this I 
conceive to be the first lesson which ought to be taught 
to any one having in mind the pursuit of this business 
of American journalism. • Our enterprises are not purely 
commercial. If we are to do nothing more than to fur- 
nish mere entertainment for the public, then we fall 
to the level of the lowest panderer. 

In his delightful book upon ' ' The American Common- 
wealth," Mr. Bryce says, speaking of government by 
public opinion in America, "Newspapers are powerful 
in three ways, as narrators, as advocates, and as weather- 
cocks." I think this order is obviously correct. I be- 
lieve that the newspaper to perfectly fulfil its mission 
should first furnish the information upon which the 
citizen may form a judgment for his guidance in both 
his business and his political relations ; second, it should 
be an intelligent presentation and discussion of public 
questions and fairly lead the citizen in the path of busi- 
ness and civic righteousness ; third, it may very properly 
contribute to the healthful entertainment of the reader. 
Formerly in this country, and to-day upon the con- 
tinent of Europe, the newspaper is, as I have said, an 
organ of opinion, the chief purpose being to give direc- 

211 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

tion to the public mind by argument. But to-day in 
America the editorial page has in too many instances 
ceased to be of much consequence and a fair, prompt, 
and accurate statement of current facts is the one 
desideratum. 

If it be true, as I think, that the gathering of news 
is the chief function of the American newspaper, and 
if, after all, it is as the purveyor of news that the Ameri- 
can newspaper is primarily valuable, it seems to me 
important to inquire, what is this news that we should 
gather, and what, if any, are the limitations imposed 
upon us in respect of the matter we may publish ? As a 
nation we are a news-mad people. 

It is easy to edit a newspaper if you put away entirely 
all effort at thinking. I know many news editors who 
calmly catalogue events, saying this is news and that is 
not ; and having done this, they go their way, assuming 
that they are master- workmen in the craft. They will 
say, for instance, that a hanging is always news, a prize- 
fight is always news, a divorce case is always news, a 
railway accident is always news; in short, that any 
disaster by flood, or field, or in the domestic circle, is 
always news. Now, as a matter of fact, these things 
are episodes ; they are the May-flies in the world of news 
— those short-lived insects which swarm like driving 
snowflakes in the evening, and, having deposited their 
eggs, leave their bodies piled in heaps on the banks of 
their native stream on the morning of the very next day. 
They are in no sense contributions to the real history 
of the world. To use another simile, they are like 
dishes of what the cookbooks call "floating island," 
tickling the palate for the moment, but having no 
substantial merit. Of such a character are nine-tenths 
of those news despatches which, for want of a better 
name, are called human interest stories. 

It was Mr. Gladstone, I believe, who said that the 
true statesman was the man who knew how to select from 
the thousand-and-one public questions pressing for at- 

212 



THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 

tention those which were really of consequence. This 
applies with equal force to the journalists. The news- 
paper which is edited without a proper sense of perspec- 
tive becomes a confused and chaotic jumble, cheating the 
reader of valuable time and leaving with him little of 
real value. Such a newspaper was once owned by an 
ignorant plutocrat in the West. The Franco-German 
War was on. One night he entered his office and found 
two editors, who had been given co-ordinate authority, 
quarreling. One of them was pro-French and the other 
pro-German, and each was anxious to commit the paper 
to his view. The proprietor calmly took the conflicting 
editorials, called for scissors and paste-pot, and pro- 
ceeded to adjust the matter. "I do not care a blank 
for the blank French, nor a blank blank for the blank 
Dutch, but in the runnin' of a newspaper things has got 
to consist," he said. And the next morning there ap- 
peared an extraordinary editorial. One sentence fa- 
vored the French, another the Germans, and the whole 
wound up with a semicolon! 

How far this tendency goes you may discover if you 
go abroad and live in any European or South American 
country. Pick up a French paper, for instance, and 
read the news of America, week in and week out, as it 
is published there, and you will necessarily conclude 
that the life of this country is made up wholly of 
lynchings, murders, railway accidents, and scandals. 
The great sweep of American life, the great trend 
of American thought, the marvelous things we are 
doing for the betterment of mankind, are reflected 
nowhere. 

I once sat at luncheon with the editor of the Paris 
Figaro, Gaston Calmette. That day his paper had con- 
tained what purported to be a cable message from New 
York, recounting in thrilling phrase the story of a mas- 
sacre of a large company of people by Indians on Broad- 
way. I asked him why he published so absurd a tale. 
"Ah," said he, "there are sixty thousand brainless 

213 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

women in Paris. They are the demi-monde. They read 
Figaro and these silly things amuse them. Our name 
is Figaro. We are not a newspaper and have no respon- 
sibility as such." 

And perhaps you will permit me to say that this sort 
of journalism is, after all, not the most profitable sort of 
journalism. I have had some experience in this busi- 
ness, and that experience demonstrated conclusively that 
the publication of real information brought subscribers 
in large numbers, and the class of subscribers which it 
brought became fast friends of my newspaper. Seeking 
to secure a proper perspective of the world's happenings, 
I dismissed the episodes of the hour in short measure 
and set out to learn and to present the things which the 
world was doing in the field of science, of ethics, of 
politics, of economics. I found that a responsive chord 
was touched at once. 

We are a peculiar people. Drawn from all quarters 
of the globe, with many millions having no just con- 
ception of the mission ordained for this Republic with 
racial prejudices which are natural and inevitable, we 
as a people are facing problems of tremendous import. 
It is imperative that somebody, somehow, shall do some 
thinking. And I cannot help believing that there is a 
great body of the people who would like to do this 
thinking if they had only a chance. 

I suppose it is true that, as a rule, we are superficial. 
The late Price Collier wrote a book in which, in speaking 
of another people, he said, "They are great nibblers 
intellectually"; and this seems to be true of us. T. P. 
O'Connor once said, when I asked him what he 
thought of the citizens of this country, that they 
seemed to him to be "the finest half -educated race on 
earth." 

One of the reasons for our deplorable superficiality 
may be traced to the wonderful development of inter- 
communication in recent years. It is only a little more 
than half a century since our range of vision was limited 

214 



THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 

to our immediate neighborhood. Now by the extension 
of the telegraph, the cable, and wireless transmission the 
remotest corners of the world are brought close to us 
and we are as familiar with the activities of mankind 
everywhere. Every man, indeed, is akin to Goldsmith's 
teacher: 

. . . And still the wonder grew, 
That one small head could carry all he knew. 

In such circumstances it is impossible that we should 
dip very deep into the Pierian spring. 

Are we doing all we can to better such a condition, 
which I am sure you must admit is an unfortunate one? 
The newspaper has practically driven out of existence in 
this country the review ; even the magazines are devoted, 
as a rule, to fiction of the most inconsequential character ; 
even in the newspaper, in large measure, editorial opinion 
has disappeared. Where, then, I ask you, shall you turn 
for a serious, thoughtful consideration of any public 
question? May I suggest that I believe there is a great 
longing on the part of many people for real information, 
and that I believe it would prove profitable to attempt to 
minister to this desire? The vast multitude who as- 
semble every year at the various Chautauqua meetings 
give some evidence of this. 

Some years ago I made an investigation which dis- 
closed the fact that if the foreign world were divided into 
nations of the size of the United States, each such nation 
would have but eighty daily newspapers, while we had 
twenty-four hundred, and if you consider the circulation 
of our newspapers, the figures become even more strik- 
ing. We issue a daily paper for every three of our 
citizens above ten years of age who can read. We issue 
some sort of a newspaper, daily, weekly, or monthly 
three times a week for every human being in the land. 
In this day the words of the Psalmist have surely come 
true: 

215 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowl- 
edge. 

There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. 

Their line is gone out through all the earth, their words to the end 
of the world. 



It follows from what I have said that I think it is as 
reporters and not as advisers or as entertainers that we 
rise to our highest stature. And to be a good reporter 
requires a great education. There is nothing more 
pitiable than the attempt of an ignoramus to write an 
abstract of an intelligent speech or to interpret an intel- 
ligent man's ideas in an interview. It is equally lament- 
able to observe a stupid half-baked youngster struggling 
to report any event involving knowledge of a national 
or an international question. In American journalism 
of to-day we have a great army of these so-called re- 
porters, but we rarely have real reporters. An intelligent 
reporter is far more valuable than an intelligent editor. 
It will be a great day for American journalism when this 
fact is generally recognized, when a public man will have 
some assurance that his words and acts will be fairly 
and intelligently presented, when the average reporter 
will show by his deportment that, as Orlando puts it, 
lie has 

Ever been where bells have knell'd to church, 
Has ever sat at any good man's feast. 

A little less impertinence is most desirable. The 
arrogant, bumptious reporter, strutting about in bor- 
rowed plumes, gets far less news for his newspaper than 
the self-respecting and well-mannered one. The busi- 
ness is a legitimate one and the reporter who is a gentle- 
man and conducts himself as such rarely finds it difficult 
to secure all the information he is entitled to. So much 
for his education in manners. 

As to his education in matter, there is an old Latin 
adage which applies. It is, "De omni re scibili et quibus- 

216 



THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 

dam aliis." Rendered into modern newspaper English, 
it would mean that he should be possessed of all knowl- 
edge of everything, and then some, besides. He cannot 
know too much. If he is to succeed and rise to any 
distinction in our profession he must have the unremit- 
ting toil of a Trappist monk. He should be serious- 
minded and should read serious and informative things. 
He should be a great reader. And yet he should not read 
everything. Some day, perhaps, we shall have for his 
benefit something like the "Spugs," and it shall be called 
the S. P. U. R., the Society for the Prevention of Useless 
Reading. There have just been issued two volumes upon 
"American and English Studies," by the late Whitelaw 
Reid, who was one of the Advisory Board of this school. 
In a paper on journalism as a career and speaking of a 
school of journalism, he suggested that the first thing 
that one should study was a history of the political 
parties of his own country, and, second, a comprehensive 
knowledge of the entire history of the country; third, 
an acquaintance with the general history of the world; 
fourth, a general knowledge of the fundamental prin- 
ciples of common constitutional and international law, 
and thereafter such knowledge and familiarity with 
political economy, exact reasoning upon any subject, 
foreign languages and belles-lettres as he might acquire. 
Such a training alone will qualify a man to be a good re- 
porter, whether in the ordinarily accepted view of the 
reporter, that he is a runabout for items, or in the 
larger view that he is conducting a newspaper. 

I have indicated to you my belief that the highest and 
best form of news was informative in its character; 
that we should be writing the real history of the world, 
and that so far as may be we should dismiss the episode 
and the tittle-tattle. I know there is a present rage for 
so-called "human-interest stories." It is not a new form 
of mania. More than a hundred years ago a statesman 
who was accounted the most eloquent American from the 
beginning of our country to the days of Daniel Webster, 

217 



"M. E. S.V — HIS BOOK 

Mr. Fisher Ames, discussed this question with great in- 
telligence. May I read you what he said : 

It seems as if newspaper wares were made to suit a market, as 
much as any other. The starers and wonderers and gapers engross a 
very large share of the attention of all the sons of the type. Extraor- 
dinary events multiply upon us surprisingly. Gazettes, it is seriously 
to be feared, will not long allow room to anything that is not loath- 
some or shocking. A newspaper is pronounced to be very lean and 
destitute of matter if it contains no accounts of murders, suicides, 
tragedies, or monstrous births. 

Some of these tales excite horror, and others disgust; yet the 
fashion reigns, like a tyrant, to relish wonders, and almost to relish 
nothing else. Is this a reasonable case? Is the history of Newgate 
the only one worth reading? Are oddities only to be hunted? 
Pray tell us, men of ink, if our presses are to diffuse information, and 
we, the poor ignorant people, can get it in no other way than by 
newspapers, what knowledge are we to glean from the blundering 
lies or the tiresome truths about thunder-storms which, strange 
to tell, kill oxen, or burn barns; and cats that bring two-headed 
kittens; and sows that eat their own pigs? 

Surely extraordinary events have not the best title to our studious 
attention. To study nature or man, we ought to know things that 
are in the ordinary course, not the unaccountable things that happen 
out of it. 

This country is said to measure seven hundred millions of acres, 
and is inhabited by almost six millions of people. Who can doubt, 
then, that a great many things will happen every seven years? 
There will be thunder-showers that will split tough white oak trees; 
and hail-storms that will cost some farmers the full amount of 
twenty shillings to mend their glass windows; there will be taverns, 
and boxing matches, and elections, gouging and drinking, and love 
and murder, and running in debt, and running away, and suicides. 
Now, if a man supposes eight or ten, or twenty dozen of these amusing 
events will happen in a single year, is he not just as wise as another 
man who reads fifty columns of amazing particulars, and, of course, 
knows that they have happened? This state has almost one hundred 
thousand dwelling-houses; it would be strange if all of them would 
escape fire for twelve months. Yet is it very profitable for a man 
to become a deep student of all the accidents by which they are 
consumed? He should take good care of his chimney corner, and 
put a fender before the backlog, before he goes to bed. Having 
done this, he may let his aunt or grandmother read by day, or 
meditate by night, the terrible newspaper articles of fires; how a 
man dropped asleep reading a romance and the bed-clothes took 

218 



THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 

fire; how a boy searching in a garret for a hoard of nuts kindled 
some flax; and how a mouse, warming his tail, caught it on fire 
and carried it into his hole in the floor. 

Now what instruction is there in these endless wonders? Who 
is the wiser or happier for reading the accounts of them? On the 
contrary, do they not shock tender minds and addle shallow brains? 
They make a thousand old maids, and eight or ten thousand booby 
boys, afraid to go to bed alone. Worse than this happens, for some 
eccentric minds are turned to mischief by such accounts as they 
receive of troops of incendiaries burning our cities; the spirit of 
imitation is contagious and boys are found unaccountably bent to 
do as men do. When the man flew from the steeple of the North 
Church fifty years ago every unlucky boy thought of nothing but 
flying from a sign-post. 

Every horrid story in a newspaper produces a shock; but, after 
some time, this shock lessens. At length, such stories are so far 
from giving pain that they rather raise curiosity and we desire 
nothing so much as the particulars of terrible tragedies. 

Now, Messrs. Printers, I pray the whole honorable craft to banish 
as many murders, and horrid accidents, and monstrous births, and 
prodigies from their gazettes as their readers will permit them, 
and by degrees to coax them back to contemplate life and manners; 
to consider common events with some common sense; and to study 
Nature where she can be known, rather than in those of her ways 
where she really is, or is represented to be, inexplicable. 

Strange events are facts, and as such should be mentioned but 
with brevity and in a cursory manner. They afford no ground for 
popular reasoning or instructions; and, therefore, the horrid details 
that make each particular hair stiffen and stand upright in the 
reader's head ought not to be given. In short, they must be men- 
tioned; but sensible printers and sensible readers will think that 
way of mentioning them the best that impresses them least on the 
public attention, and that hurries them on the most swiftly to be 
forgotten. 

I am impressed that this address could have been de- 
livered with great profit in this very hour. What we 
need are newspapers having such vision that they are 
able to present a fair perspective of the really important 
things that are happening in the world, to whom, for 
instance, the chaotic condition in Mexico is of some more 
moment than the Nan Patterson case in New York. 
You remember the tale from the Arabian Nights — how 
one of the Barmecides was visited by a poor, common, 

219 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

starving fellow, who asked for something to eat, and how 
the Potentate laid before him an imaginary feast, which 
seemed to include every known delicacy, but which, after 
all, provided no real nourishment. I ask you if, in the 
drift of the times, there is not some tendency to provide 
such a Barmecide's feast for newspaper readers in this 
country ? 

Take this Mexican situation — one of the most ab- 
sorbing to the American people. How many news- 
papers have gone to the bottom of it? How many re- 
porters are qualified to go to the bottom of it ? Who will 
tell you that the chaos in that so-called republic is the 
logical and inevitable consequence of its history for the 
last fifty years; that whenever a great dominant char- 
acter, such as Porfirio Diaz, passes out, in the very nature 
of the case, the people are unready and unwilling to 
accept any one of his lieutenants, who has always been 
regarded as a lieutenant and who is still regarded as a 
lieutenant, as their master? Moreover, that with all 
the good that this wonderful man did for Mexico he 
failed in two conspicuous matters: he left the country 
with a vast illiterate citizenry, and he left the land un- 
divided so that the peon has nowhere to lay his head. 
These are clearly the underlying causes of the present 
disturbance and it matters little who is President, there 
can be no permanent adjustment until the millions of 
acres now held by a few feudal lords are so divided that 
the peasantry will have a home and stake in the land, 
which will make it more profitable for him to be a loyal 
citizen than a bandit. Turn to last week's issue of the 
London Graphic, you will find that a like unrest for a 
like cause exists in England, and you will not have to 
wait long before you will find a like unrest for a like 
cause in Hungary. 

Take the agitation which is now going on in China, 
led by a student of this University, for a restoration of 
Confucianism as a state religion. 

Take the case in South Africa just developed where 

220 



THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 

race prejudice has opened up a great struggle be- 
tween the white people and the East Indians, and note 
how difficult a problem is presented to the British 
Government. 

Take the recent Clinical Congress of Surgeons in 
Chicago, where the latest achievements of that wonder- 
ful profession were discussed. 

Take the current inquiry into our national finance 
and the high cost of living, and the question of equal 
suffrage for men and women. These are all questions 
of real human interest. They are all subjects furnishing 
news of the very highest order. As compared with them 
the antics of our friends at Newport, the proceedings of 
the divorce courts of Reno, a fire in Grand Street, or 
even a morning report of the Court of General Sessions, 
seem to me somewhat inconsequential. I know that I 
shall be answered that newspapers are made by the 
public and not by their editors, that if the public de- 
mands better things they will be given them. I am 
not sure that even from a purely commercial point of 
view this is correct. I am convinced that there is a 
great body of our citizens, much larger than is usually 
supposed, who would be better pleased with informative 
journalism than with purely entertaining journalism. 
I think an investigation of the newspapers of the United 
States will clearly prove this. As a rule the profitable 
and influential newspapers devote a great deal of their 
space to matter of an informative character. 

But lest I be entirely misunderstood, let me repeat 
that a newspaper to be successful should be entertaining, 
but mere entertainment should not be its final end and 
aim. Moreover, I believe in sensational journalism. 
To be news at all a thing must be sensational. I use 
the word " sensational" with what I conceive to be its 
correct meaning. It is the unusual, the startling quality 
to any information which makes it news. A Methodist 
minister may rise in his pulpit every Sunday morning 
for forty years and preach the gospel in conformity with 

221 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

the tenets of his church and it will not be news at all; 
but if he rises one morning and preaches heresy it be- 
comes news. Criminal information published merely 
because it is a story of crime, if those implicated are 
people of no consequence and the crime is commonplace 
in its character, is not news. But the story of the 
recent murder trial in Kieff, Russia, was of enormous 
worth, and rightfully was of great news value. I think 
the publication of it saved hundreds of lives. I have 
no doubt that if the old methods in Russia still obtained, 
and if the trial of Beiliss had been a secret one, he 
probably would have been convicted, and there would 
have followed a massacre of the Jews. I think such a 
massacre would have followed even his acquittal but 
for the publicity given to the case, and I firmly believe 
in the moral value of mere news-publishing. No great 
harm or wrong can come to the sons of men for any 
great length of time anywhere on this rolling globe if 
you but let in the light of publicity. 

Much may be said, and fairly, in criticism of our 
journalism, of a lack of perspective on the part of our 
journalists, of the pushing to the front of inconse- 
quential things, of exaggeration and inaccuracy, but 
I think it fair to say, after all, that with rare exceptions 
American newspaper men generally are striving for a 
common end — for an honest, truthful, and dignified his- 
tory of the day's doings — which shall be helpful and up- 
lifting. That the ignorance of a great many reporters 
is a grievous fault, and that we are sometimes less mind- 
ful of our obligations than we should be, still there is 
truth in the old Spanish proverb that 

The printed part, tho* far too large, is less 
Than that which yet unprinted waits the press. 

There is a voice that comes to us from the grave upon 
this subject, the distinguished Founder of this school, 
who, notwithstanding the fact that he was the subject 

222 



THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER 

of the saddest affliction that is possible to come to an 
editor, and because of this affliction could not read his 
own paper, gave to us an editorial page to which there 
was no superior in the country. Mr. Joseph Pulitzer 
has left us for our guidance and instruction a paper of 
extraordinary value, revealing aspirations which must 
command the profound regard of all. 

"We are embarked," says he, "whether we like it or 
not, upon a revolution in thought and life. Progress is 
sweeping forward with accelerating force, outstripping in 
decades the advance of former centuries and millenniums. 
All professions, all occupations but one, are keeping 
step with this majestic march. Its inspiration has 
fired all ranks of the marching army — or must we except 
the standard-bearers? The self-constituted leaders and 
enlighteners of the people — what are they doing? 
Standing still, lost in self -admiration, while the hosts 
march by? Are they even doing as well as that? Is 
it not a fact that the editors of seventy years ago were, 
as a rule, better informed in law, politics, government, 
and history than those of to-day? The statesmen and 
lawyers and political students who used to do editorial 
work for ambition or intellectual pleasure have ceased 
to frequent the newspaper offices. 

"Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. 
An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained 
intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, 
can preserve that public virtue without which popular 
government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, 
mercenary, demagogic, corrupt press will produce in 
time a people as base as itself. The power to mold 
the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the 
journalists of future generations." 



UNTO WHOMSOEVER MUCH IS GIVEN* 

By Melville E. Stone 

For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much re- 
quired; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will 
ask the more. — St. Luke xii:48. 

THIS is my text and by your leave I propose to 
preach a little sermon on what our friend Colonel 
Roosevelt has aptly called the "old moralities." Your 
distinguished Mr. Charles M. Sheldon has given some 
justification for me. I could only wish that I might 
acquit myself as well in his profession as he did in ours,f 
but this obviously may not be. 

We newspaper men are clearly of those to whom much 
has been given, to whom men have committed much. 
It is our truthful boast that we belong to a privileged 
class. It was not always so. A struggle of two centuries 
was necessary to achieve the liberty of the press. Under 
the old theory of government, when the view was that 
the citizens were created for the government and not the 
government for the citizens, obviously there could be 

* An address before the Kansas State Editorial Association, at Law- 
rence, Kansas, April 9, 1912. Reprinted in the volume, "The Coming 
Newspaper"; edited by Merle Thorpe and published by Henry Holt & 
Co., New York, 191 5. Copyright, 191 5, by Henry Holt & Co., and 
reprinted here with their courteous permission. 

t In 1900, Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, a well-known pastor of Topeka, 
Kansas, author of "In His Steps," conducted the Topeka Daily Capital 
for one week in the manner which he thought ought to characterize a 
"Christian daily newspaper." 

224 




W. D. BRICKELL 
DON C. SEITZ 



W. Y. MORGAN 
CHARLES P. TAFT 



Former Directors of The Associated Press— II 



UNTO WHOMSOEVER MUCH IS GIVEN 

no free speech and no free press. But back in Holland 
another view originated, that not only did governments 
derive their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned, but that indeed the true principle went beyond 
that, and that governments could only rightfully exist 
as the agents through which the individual citizen should 
be guaranteed and protected in the largest liberty of 
action consistent with his relation to his fellow-men. 
Government then became but a social contract. A 
necessary corollary of this freedom of the citizen and of 
this theory of government by and for the people was a 
free press. It was old John Milton, who, after visiting 
Holland and catching the spirit of that country, wrote 
his wonderful plea for unlicensed printing and set in 
motion the struggle which lasted for two centuries and 
culminated on our own soil in the First Amendment to 
the Federal Constitution, providing that there should 
never be anything done to abridge the freedom of speech 
or the freedom of the press. Twice the State Constitu- 
tion framed in Massachusetts was offered to the people 
and rejected because it contained no provision guaran- 
teeing a free press. The fathers thus saw very early how 
essential the freedom of the press was, and while we fully 
concur in that view, I think we must all admit that it 
is not an unmixed good. A distinguished French com- 
mentator, De Tocqueville, who wrote one of the best 
critiques upon American democracy, speaking of the 
press, said that it "constitutes a singular power so 
strangely composed of good and evil that liberty could not 
live without it and public order could hardly be main- 
tained against it." Even to-day there be those who 
think the balance of evil lies against a free press. And 
do not imagine, please, that nothing can be said on that 
side of the question. Let me present to you the view of 
a very distinguished European statesman, recently de- 
ceased. 

Pobyedonostseff, the eminent Russian reactionary, 
said: 

15 225 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Any vagabond babbler or unacknowledged genius, any enterpris- 
ing tradesman, with his own money, or with the money of others, 
may found a newspaper, even a great newspaper. He may attract 
a host of writers and feuilletonists, ready to deliver judgment on 
any subject at a moment's notice; he may hire illiterate reporters 
to keep him supplied with rumors and scandals. His staff is then 
complete. From that day he sits in judgment on all the world, on 
ministers and administrators, on literature and art, on finance and 
industry. It is true that the new journal becomes a power only 
when it is sold on the market — that is, when it circulates among the 
public. For this talent is needed, and the matter published must 
be attractive and congenial for the readers. Here, we might think, 
was some guarantee of the moral value of the undertaking — men 
of talent will not serve a feeble or contemptible editor or publisher; 
the public will not support a newspaper which is not a faithful echo of 
public opinion. 

This guarantee is fictitious. Experience proves that money will 
attract talent under any conditions, and that talent is ready to write 
as its paymaster requires. Experience proves that the most con- 
temptible persons — retired money-lenders, Jewish factors, news- 
venders, and bankrupt gamblers — may found newspapers, secure 
the services of talented writers and place their editions on the market 
as organs of public opinion. The healthy taste of the public is not 
to be relied upon. The great mass of readers, idlers for the most 
part, is ruled less by a few healthy instincts than by a base and 
despicable hankering for idle amusement, and the support of the 
people may be secured by any editor who provides for the satisfac- 
tion of these hankerings, for the love of scandal, and for intellectual 
pruriency of the basest kind. Of this we meet with evidence daily; 
even in our capital no search is necessary to find it; it is enough to 
note the supply and demand of the news-venders' shops and at the 
railway stations. 

Such a paper may flourish, attain consideration as an organ of 
public opinion, and be immensely remunerative to its owners, while 
no paper conducted upon firm moral principles or founded to meet 
the healthier instincts of the people could compete with it for a 
moment. 

Finally he delivers this last blow at what he considers 
the irresponsibility of the journalist: 

For the journalist, with a power comprehending all things, re- 
quires no sanction. He derives his authority from no election, he 
receives support from no one. His newspaper becomes an authority 
in the State, and for this authority no indorsement is required. 

226 



UNTO WHOMSOEVER MUCH IS GIVEN 

The man in the street may establish such an organ and exercise the 
concomitant with an irresponsibility enjoyed by no other power in 
the world. That this is in no way exaggeration there are innumer- 
able proofs. How often have superficial and unscrupulous journalists 
paved the way for revolution, fomented irritation into enmity, and 
brought about desolating wars? For conduct such as this a monarch 
would lose his throne, a minister would be disgraced, impeached, and 
punished; but the journalist stands dry above the waters he has 
disturbed, from the ruin he has caused he rises triumphant and 
briskly continues his destructive work. 

Its defenders assure us that the Press itself heals the wounds it 
has inflicted; but any thinking mind can see that these are mere 
idle words. The attacks of the Press on individuals may cause 
irreparable injury. Retraction and explanations can in no way 
give them full satisfaction. Not half of those who read the de- 
nunciatory article will read the apology or the explanation, and in 
the minds of the mass of frivolous readers insulting or calumnious 
suggestions leave behind an ineffaceable stain. Criminal prosecu- 
tion for defamation is but the feeblest defense, and civil action 
seldom succeeds in exposing the offender, while it subjects the of- 
fended to fresh attack. The journalist, moreover, has a thousand 
means of wounding and terrifying individuals without furnishing 
them with sufficient grounds for legal prosecution. 

But it is not necessary for you to go so far afield to 
find much criticism of our free press. In an article in the 
April issue of the Atlantic Monthly Mr. Hobhouse, a 
well-known English writer, speaks of some of the prime 
evils of America and says that one of them is that the 
press is engaged in misleading the electorate. I listened 
with great interest a few weeks ago to a speech by an 
eminent United States Senator, who is also a candidate 
for the Republican nomination for the Presidency, in 
which he inveighed at length against the American news- 
paper as being controlled by improper influences. In a 
very illuminating volume which has just issued from the 
press under the title of "The New Democracy," a brill- 
iant writer devotes a chapter to the newspaper, and his 
criticism is a very sharp one. He alleges that there are 
a large number of newspapers controlled by corrupt in- 
terests; another large number are in the hands of their 
advertisers, and in general he supports the view sug- 

227 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

gested by Mr. Hobhouse that we do mislead the 
electorate. 

Now, all this is very serious. These charges are not 
to be dismissed without consideration. We are bound by 
every obligation of propriety to enter upon an examina- 
tion to determine whether we are meeting our obliga- 
tions. "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall 
be much required." Broadly, I do not believe that the 
claim of Senator La Follette or that of Mr. Weyl, author 
of "The New Democracy," can be sustained. I suppose 
there is no one in this country who has such opportunity 
for information respecting the ownership of the daily 
press as I have. I should say that the number of news- 
papers directly owned by what are known as "the in- 
terests ' ' is very small. Repeated efforts have been made 
by men of great wealth and having large interests to 
buy and conduct newspapers for the purpose of affecting 
public opinion. But in almost every instance these 
efforts have failed ; and for reasons which I hope I may 
be able to make plain to you. 

Mr. Jay Gould once owned a daily newspaper in New 
York, and after a short and inglorious career with it, 
was glad to sell for a greatly reduced price. Something 
like thirty years ago Mr. Cyrus Field bought an evening 
paper to protect his railway interests, and made an 
attempt to run it. It was the New York Mail and 
Express. Of course, it was not long before he discovered 
that he could not make the thing work. He then of- 
fered to sell me a half-interest with the understanding 
that I should pay for it out of the paper's earnings. I 
asked who would be associated with me, and he replied 
that he would keep the other half himself. I was forced 
to say that without any desire to be offensive I could 
not buy into the paper at all if he were to remain in it, 
even with a minority. A newspaper cannot succeed if 
it is to be made the means toward an ulterior end. 

I know a limited number of newspapers in this country 
which are to-day owned by large interests; but, as I 

228 



UNTO WHOMSOEVER MUCH IS GIVEN 

have said, the number is very small and the papers are 
entirely inconsequential and practically powerless to ac- 
complish anything of evil for their proprietors. Nine- 
tenths of the American newspapers are conducted for the 
purpose of making money for their proprietors by 
legitimate means — through subscriptions and advertis- 
ing. While the last thing in the world which I propose 
to do is to claim perfection for the American newspaper, 
yet I do not think that the charge that as a body the 
newspaper editors in this country are trying to mislead 
the electorate, or that they are engaged in any sinister 
design, is true. With rare exceptions they are honest 
and conscientious, and whatever failings they have, I 
believe, lean to virtue's side. A writer, attempting to 
prove that they are improperly influenced, sets up the 
claim that they are under the control of large advertisers. 
This certainly cannot mean that what are known as "the 
interests" are influencing them, because notoriously 
"the interests" do not advertise in the daily newspapers. 
The writer, then, is forced to say that editors are sup- 
pressing suicides and scandals at the request of the 
proprietors of department stores, and, finally, he thinks 
that this suppression, although done at the request of an 
advertiser, is in the interest of good morals, for the 
scandals themselves should not be printed. Then, if 
this criticism were true, it means little because the de- 
partment stores as a class throughout the country have 
no community of interest with what are known as "the 
interests." They constitute no political factor and the 
views of the proprietors upon public questions are prob- 
ably as divergent as those of any other class of people 
in the country. 

The next charge is that the American newspaper has 
become commercialized because the control has gone from 
the editorial chair to the counting-room. I think there 
is some ground for this statement, although the criticism 
is far less important than it seems to those who make it. 
It has always been the rule that newspapers have been 

229 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

controlled from their counting-rooms and that the 
editorial force has been made up of hired men. I say 
this has been the rule. There have been exceptions and 
very notable ones. Such exceptions were the cases of 
the elder James Gordon Bennett, Horace Greeley, 
Charles A. Dana, Joseph Medill, Murat Halstead, 
Richard Smith, and Joseph McCullagh. Yet, after all, 
in two cases alone among those I have cited did the 
editor, while dominating the paper, own an actual con- 
trol of its stock. There is something about the business 
which makes it practically impossible for one man to 
combine the qualities of editor and business manager. 
In a certain sense success in the editorial department 
disqualifies a man for success in the counting-room. 
Now and then in the theatrical profession you will find a 
man who seems to have a versatility which enables him 
to be a successful actor-manager, but even there the cases 
are rare. Even Henry Irving died a bankrupt because 
of his lack of business efficiency. And so editor-pub- 
lishers have never been numerous. The London Times, 
while owned for a century and a quarter by the Walters 
family, was edited by employees. To-day the London 
Times is largely owned by men who do no writing and, 
indeed, who have no practical knowledge of journalism. 
The London Daily News is owned by the Cadburys, the 
cocoa men. Neither the London Chronicle, nor the 
London Standard, nor any other London daily, so far as 
I am advised, is edited by its owner. In this country, 
also, even of the list of great editors of whom I have 
spoken only one or two died leaving any personal fort- 
une. This, I think, is to be said to their credit. I 
think it might be desirable that the editorial department 
of the American newspaper outweigh the counting-room 
in importance in the newspaper office. I believe if it 
did, and the influence were intelligently exercised, it 
would bring better results from a purely business point 
of view. 

And this brings me to the thing I desire most to speak 

230 



UNTO WHOMSOEVER MUCH IS GIVEN 

of. Addressing, as I am, men of my own craft, men 
engaged in a business to which I have devoted my life, 
perhaps you will indulge me while I make some practical 
suggestions respecting what I feel to be the ideal news- 
paper, and respecting some of the things which I feel we, 
as newspaper men, should do to meet our obligations 
to the public. Perhaps I can do no better than to tell 
you something of my own experience. 

In 1875, with practically no money, I founded the 
Chicago Daily News. I laid down a course of conduct 
which it seemed to me must bring success, and I am glad 
to say that it did. And yet the rules adopted at that 
time were in force in very few newspaper offices in the 
country, and unhappily I think they are not all in force 
to-day in many newspaper offices. The first was that 
the newspaper should be run distinctly in the interest 
of the public and that the subscriber should have chief 
consideration. It was recognized that a newspaper has 
in its editorial department three offices to perform : First, 
to print the news; second, to strive to guide public 
opinion in a proper direction, and, third, to furnish 
entertainment. I use this order because I believe it to 
be the correct one. I believe it to be a business mistake 
to invert this order and to make the entertainment of the 
reader of supreme importance. I think the business of 
guiding public opinion, while it involves a large respon- 
sibility, is, after all, secondary. Following this order 
the proper presentation of news was the first thing of 
consequence. The news was put upon the first page of 
the paper, the most conspicuous place, and an effort 
made to present a true perspective of the world's real 
developing history. There was an unbreakable rule that 
nothing should appear in the columns of the paper which 
a young woman could not read aloud in the presence of 
a mixed company. My belief was and is that this was a 
proper rule on purely business grounds. We had a paper 
in Chicago printing scandals, and while it achieved a very 
considerable circulation, it was not admitted to homes 

231 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

and therefore its value as an advertising sheet was of 
little consequence. Another rule was that the paper 
should make every effort to see that its news was truth- 
ful and impartial, and if at any time we were led into a 
misstatement, nothing gave me greater pleasure than 
to make a fair, frank, and open acknowledgment and 
apology. I know that in many newspaper offices there 
is an attempt to convince the public of the editor's in- 
fallibility. I think this is a mistake. A reputation for 
integrity can be achieved and has enormous value. A 
reputation for infallibility is hardly possible. The editor 
cannot deceive his readers or the public. The news- 
paper makes a reputation precisely as the citizen does. 
If your fellow-citizen makes a misstatement about you 
and promptly, frankly, and fully retracts and apologizes, 
he grows in your esteem. If, on the other hand, with 
knowledge that he has made a misstatement, he refuses 
to apologize and retract, he grows in your contempt. 
And this is equally true of the newspaper. 

These were two rules. First, that the news should 
have first place, and, second, that it should be truthful 
news, or if not truthful, there should be perfect readiness 
to retract and correct so far as possible. The effect of 
the printed word is very great and any conscientious 
editor must recognize that, do what he will, he can never 
make full atonement for a misstatement affecting the 
character of any man. 

The third rule divorced the business and editorial de- 
partments absolutely. No line of paid reading matter 
ever appeared in the columns of the paper. This was 
adhered to religiously. Everything in the form of ad- 
vertising was printed as advertising, so that the reader 
could instantly detect it. Such were the rules respecting 
the news service. 

Turning to the business department, the rules were 
equally stringent. It was recognized that advertising 
was a legitimate business. Our theory was that every 
one was free to advertise or not, precisely as he was free 

232 



UNTO WHOMSOEVER MUCH IS GIVEN 

to buy groceries at a grocery store or dry-goods at a dry- 
goods store. The claim sometimes set up by newspaper 
proprietors that the advertiser is under some sort of 
an obligation to advertise smacks of blackmail. In the 
early days of the paper it was by no means an uncommon 
thing for the business department to tell a man frankly 
that he had better not advertise in the Daily News. 
For instance, if a man called at the office with an ad- 
vertisement to sell a stationary engine, he would be told 
that while we were in the business of advertising and 
would be glad to have his advertisement, if he inserted 
it in the Daily News he would have to pay for a circula- 
tion of nine, ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand, whatever 
the circulation was, and that of the readers of the Daily 
News, it was not likely that a dozen would be in want of 
a stationary engine. He was therefore advised to take 
his advertisement to a paper like the American Machinist, 
where he would find a large proportion of the readers 
possible purchasers. He was told that if at any time 
he had something to advertise which the Daily News 
could properly and profitably serve, he was invited to 
return. You may be sure he returned. 

With the earliest issue, the actual paid circulation 
day by day was printed at the head of the editorial 
column and sworn to. This was a very uncommon thing 
in that day. Indeed, I do not know of any other paper 
in the United States that did it. My belief was that 
the advertiser should be perfectly free to advertise or 
not to advertise, and that if he did want to advertise he 
had the same right to know the extent and the character 
of the circulation of the paper that you would have if 
you entered a dry-goods store to buy prints and de- 
manded to know whether they were fast colors, and yard 
wide, or not. 

You had no right to expect him to buy a pig in a bag. 
Our aim was, therefore, to give the fullest possible in- 
formation and to invite the advertiser to verify our 
statements by any method that might suggest itself. 

233 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Inasmuch as we regarded the reader as of more value 
than the advertiser, and inasmuch as our first duty, as 
we conceived it, was to the reader, while aiming to deal 
fairly with the advertiser at all times, we insisted that 
he should take second place. We therefore made it an 
inflexible rule that all locations of advertising must be 
at publisher's option, and we made no contracts what- 
ever for "top of the column next to reading matter." 
In the make-up of the paper the news matter was always 
considered paramount and the advertising relegated to a 
less important place. 

The rule was also absolute that there should be no 
cutting of rates under any circumstances. I had an 
amusing experience in connection with this matter. 
After Mr. Victor Lawson joined me as a partner he took 
charge of the business end of the concern, while I con- 
ducted the editorial end. Mr. Lawson' s views and mine 
were in thorough accord. The paper was young and 
struggling. One day the junior partner in a leading 
house in Chicago called and said that he would make a 
long-time contract for advertising if we would cut our 
lowest rate ten per cent. I replied: 

"Cutting rates is a thing we have never done in the 
history of the paper and have said we would never do; 
that is, we would never discriminate between advertisers. 
But I recognize the importance of your house and am 
willing to contract with you on one condition. As a 
matter of fact we have but one rate, so that there is 
no lowest rate. Our rates are printed and are uniform. 
Yet I will make you a ten-per-cent. reduction on these 
rates upon this one condition: that you make part of 
the contract that my wife may buy dry-goods at your 
store ten per cent, cheaper than any other woman in 
Chicago and allow me to print that fact." 

"Good heavens!" he replied, "that would ruin us. 
We run a one-price store." 

He left in dudgeon, but within a week made a contract 
upon the established rates. 

234 



UNTO WHOMSOEVER MUCH IS GIVEN 

Another rule of the office forbade any effort to exploit 
the growth of the paper; either the fact that it had 
beaten some other paper on news or that its circulation 
had shown a phenomenal growth, or that it had printed 
more advertising this year than last. The only refer- 
ence we ever made to circulation in our editorial columns 
was when the circulation fell off and not when it in- 
creased. We left the readers and the public to judge 
for themselves whether as a newspaper, or as an adver- 
tising medium, the Daily News was valuable. I believe, 
and have always believed, that the constant shouting in 
a newspaper, ' ' See how we are growing, "or, " See how our 
advertising increases," is no more intelligent, nor more 
effective, than it would be for an individual to be for- 
ever parading on the street and in the company of his 
friends his own views of his own importance. 

As to the editorial department proper, that in which 
we attempted to influence public opinion, we made it a 
rule at the outset that neither Mr. Lawson nor myself 
should buy or own stock in any public utilities corpora- 
tion affecting Chicago, and we made earnest effort to 
convince the people that we were honest. We found 
that the easiest way to do this was to be honest. We 
had no axes to grind, no friends to reward, and no ene- 
mies to punish. Out of that policy, and it was a policy 
which contemplated building a paper not for to-day nor 
for to-morrow, but for the long future, came a steady 
development and growth, until I think admittedly the 
earnings of the paper to-day exceed those of any other 
in the United States. 

Now passing from that experience to The Associated 
Press, in which I think you are all interested. In 1893, 
without any solicitation or even thought on my part 
of such a thing, The Western Associated Press met in 
Chicago and appointed a committee to ask me to take 
the general managership. An issue had been joined 
upon what I conceived to be a great principle. The 
leading news-gathering organization at the time was The 

235 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

United Press, a proprietary institution controlled by- 
three men, Mr. William M. Laffan, Mr. John R. Walsh, 
and Mr. Walter P. Phillips. Without any reflection 
whatever on the fitness of these three men, I felt that such 
a condition was a menace in this country, and we at 
once reorganized The Western Associated Press, made 
it a national organization, and set out to establish a co- 
operative news-gathering association which should be 
owned, controlled, and censored by the newspapers them- 
selves. It should be an association of the papers, for 
the papers, and by the papers. 

I should be very glad if The Associated Press, its pur- 
poses and its practices, were better understood. I mean 
better understood by both reader and editor. The insti- 
tution bears a very important relation to American life, 
and is, I am sure, well worth your study. Its telegrams 
are printed primarily in over eight hundred daily news- 
papers, and are copied or rewritten in unnumbered thou- 
sands of other daily, weekly, or monthly publications. 
It is doubtless safe to say they are read by over three- 
fourths of the people of the land, and that from the intel- 
ligence they convey practically every one gathers his 
information respecting current events. 

I am sure you will all agree that it is important, to 
use no stronger word, that your market reports, for ex- 
ample, be trustworthy. Well, what assurance have you, 
not only that the reports of The Associated Press are 
honest, but that, out of the necessities of the case, they 
must be more certain of accuracy than any other market 
reports ? 

One good reason grows out of the magnitude of the 
Association's work. I know there are persons who think 
it would be better to have a half-dozen small agencies 
acting in sharp competition, but I venture to suggest 
that this is a mistake. Such rivalry would doubtless 
tend to the greatest celerity in gathering the news. But 
such rivalry would not, from any point of view, tend to 
greater accuracy. And it is far less important that you 

236 



UNTO WHOMSOEVER MUCH IS GIVEN 

get prompt news than that you get true news. How- 
ever desirable it may be to be first in the field in the 
presentation of news, and I do not undervalue this 
feature of our work, still I regard its reputation for truth- 
fulness and strict impartiality as the best asset of The 
Associated Press. 

And I insist that no smaller agency can possibly give 
as great a guarantee for accuracy or impartiality. First, 
there are the traditions of half a century which must be 
lived up to. This spirit, which animates every one in 
the service, is a good deal, but naturally it is not all. 
More important is the fact that every telegram of The 
Associated Press is subjected to such a degree of censor- 
ship as to make untruthful or biased reports practically 
impossible. 

Every one familiar with our work knows that it is 
utterly impossible for any one in the service, from the 
general manager to the least important agent at the 
most remote point, to send out an untruthful despatch 
and escape detection. You may write a biased or inac- 
curate statement for a newspaper and "get away with 
it," but you cannot do it with the argus-eyed millions 
who read the despatches of The Associated Press. Obvi- 
ously, then, the very magnitude of the Associated Press 
work tends to make truthfulness and impartiality in the 
service imperative. It cannot be used for private aims, 
to serve any special interest, or to help any political party 
or faction or propaganda. I am not laying claim to any 
great virtue. I am saying that, under its system of 
operation and in view of the millions of critics passing 
upon its work, The Associated Press is automatically 
truthful and fair. If you hear a man whining that The 
Associated Press is run in the interest of this party or 
that you may put it down that what he wants is not fair 
play, but a leaning his way. 

As one evidence of the truthfulness of our reports, I 
direct your attention to the fact that during the life of 
the present organization we have never paid a dollar of 

237 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

damages in an action for libel, nor have we compromised 
any case. 

Thus do we aim to keep in mind our obligation, 
"Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much 
required." 



"BLAZING THE TRAIL"* 

By Melville E. Stone 

SOME one, I don't know who, has assigned me this 
topic, " Blazing the Trail." I shall not quarrel with 
him, because it cannot but be suggestive of ideas. . But 
I ask your leave to depart in some measure from 
the ''bill of particulars" set out in your program. 
The topic seems to me to lend itself to a more ex- 
pansive view than that which includes only the feats 
of journalism. 

The century just closed was distinguished as one in 
which we were " blazing the trail" in every department 
of human activity. It was, far and away, the most 
notable century of all time. Nothing like it is known to 
history. Indeed, history itself first began to be intelli- 
gently written in the nineteenth century. I mean alike 
the history of the past, which then ceased to be a record 
of the achievements of rulers, and began to be a history 
of the doings of people; ceased to be a recounting of 
sieges and battles and began to be an inquiry into the 
great processes of evolution — and also the history of 
the times, which no longer found expression in the whis- 
pered and hushed gossip of the dinner-table and the 
street corner, but became the public and uncensored 
record by a free and untrammeled press. 

Not only in this but in every department of literature 
was there a " blazing of the trail." While Dante, Shake- 
speare, Bacon, and Moliere will ever occupy the highest 
pedestals in the literary Hall of Fame, it is not too much 

*An address delivered before the Association of American Advertising 
Clubs at Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 16, 191 1. 

239 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

to say that the golden ages of the Renaissance and of 
Elizabeth were both eclipsed by the general advance- 
ment of the past hundred years. 

In the department of physical science the opening of 
the last century found us groping blindly for the signifi- 
cance of a few established phenomena. Galvani had 
given us a hint upon which Volta and Franklin and 
Faraday and Morse and Hertz and Field and Edison 
and Marconi builded, and the marvelous development 
of the electricity of our day is the result. Watt gave 
us steam, and the engine, the locomotive, the steamship, 
the automobile and the aeroplane were the logical se- 
quences. A century ago the astronomers had located 
six planets ; to-day they have catalogued over one 
hundred and six. 

Gutenberg had given us movable types and a crude 
wooden hand-press to be used on hand-made paper; 
Robert Hoe gave us the fast press; a Cincinnati man 
the type-casting machine; Mergenthaler the linotype; 
Americans developed paper-making machinery, stereo- 
typing, and the half-tone, and you have the typography 
of this hour. McCormick taught us how to reap our 
fields, and Whitney gave us the cotton-gin. 

Surgery and medicine, as you and I know them, took 
origin in the nineteenth century. Lister and Morton 
and Pasteur and Koch, and the long line of men who 
have robbed disease of its terror with antiseptic and 
aseptic processes, with anesthesia, with cranial and ab- 
dominal researchings, and with counteracting toxins, 
are fresh in our minds. Comparative anatomy was un- 
thought of until Goethe suggested it, and not only in- 
vestigated the correspondence of the human body to the 
bodies of animals, but the surprising analogy in the 
vegetable kingdom. 

While from the days of the Frisians and the Bat avians, 
the Dutch had sounded the note for human liberty, and 
while in that little country of Holland, John Milton and 
John Robinson had caught the spirit which made pos- 

240 




SAMUEL BOWLES 
WILLIAM R. NELSON 



ST. CLAIR McKELWAY 
WHITELAW REID 



Former Directors of The Associated Press— III 



"BLAZING THE TRAIL" 

sible the Cromwellian revolution, the American revolu- 
tion, and the French revolution, the seed sown came to 
fruition at the beginning of the nineteenth century in 
the American republic, which, for the first time in the 
history of the world, accepted the dogma that all govern- 
ments derive their just powers from the consent of the 
governed, and which provided for a nation where every 
citizen might think, speak, print, and worship God as 
he liked, and where his rights should be limited only 
to such obedience to law as should safeguard the rights 
of his fellow-citizens. 

And how has the fruitage served for the nourishment 
of mankind? How has it passed over to Europe and 
destroyed the theory of the Divine Right of Kings and 
established the theory of the Divine Right of The People ? 
How has the whole principle of government undergone 
a change ? Some talk of Magna Charta and the English 
common law as the groundwork of our liberty. Far 
from it. The underlying principle of the English com- 
mon law and our own jurisprudence are not unlike, but 
it is because they have a common parentage, the Pan- 
dects of Justinian, and not because one is borrowed 
from the other. As a matter of fact, we have given to 
England and all Europe a degree of liberty never en- 
joyed until the establishment and development of our 
republic. 

Passing to the field of economics, it was natural that 
we should "blaze a trail." Europe was overcrowded. 
Here was a new country with a virgin soil and a 
band of adventurers. Lying between the fortieth and 
seventieth degrees of latitude, with a climate ranging 
from that of Rome to that of Norway, with a soil as 
rich as that of Holland, and reaching all the variants of 
all Europe, and with untold riches of field, of forest, 
and of mine awaiting the oncomer, there was offered 
temptation which it was more than human to resist. 
It has been said, and with some degree of truth, that 
behind every step in the world's progress lay the mer- 
16 241 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

cenary impulse. The Argonauts set sail for the Golden 
Fleece; the Pilgrims left Leyden to find a fishing-ground; 
the American Revolution started in the stamp-tax. It 
has been said that if Eli Whitney had not invented the 
cotton-gin and made cotton king, African slavery would 
have died out in this country, and we should have had 
no Rebellion. It may be that if you had gone to Castle 
Garden a hundred years ago and asked each immigrant 
why he had left Europe and come to our shores, he would 
have replied as did the men of '48, that he had come to 
find civil and religious liberty. But I think it is true 
that of all the millions who have come within the cen- 
tury, the vast majority came to share our riches. 

Let us be fair about it. In that busy hour we all of 
us went wrong. In the words of the Prayer-Book: 
"There was no health in us." Selling needles and pins 
and slaving for dollars, we handed over the work of 
running the governments — national, state, county, city, 
and township — to those who had time and inclination 
to attend to such matters. So long as they did not 
bother us, we were content. They were making our 
laws "by wholesale." There never was so much law- 
making anywhere on earth. There was law-making to 
help the great interests and law-making to blackmail 
the great interests. We cared little, so long as we were 
not immediately and seriously or consciously hurt by 
the laws, and so long as we were let alone to make money 
in any of the ways that seemed at all permissible under 
the standards which everybody seemed to approve. If 
the laws happened to give us an unjust opportunity 
over our fellows in the business of money-getting — so 
much the better. And the courts, which were carrying 
out the laws, were hobbled with a vast number of con- 
trivances. The roads they were to travel were fenced 
and barred by technicalities. George Thompson, the 
eminent English Abolitionist, visited this country, and 
was received with great cordiality in the Northern states. 
On his return, he spoke in Exeter Hall. A crusty man 

242 



"BLAZING THE TRAIL" 

in his audience was offended at the complimentary things 
Mr. Thompson was saying, and cried out: "Have ye 
no criticism of these wonderful United States?" The 
speaker hesitated a moment, and then replied with 
solemnity: "Yes, they do not enforce their laws." 

The thoughtful among us knew he was right, but we 
had no time for worry over it. We were "blazing the 
trail" that led to a pot of gold. We did not appreciate 
it, but we were enjoying the happiness of the unjust, 
of which the old Greek tragedy declared that "at its 
close it begat itself an offspring and did not die childless; 
and instead of good fortune, there sprouted forth for 
posterity — ever-ravening calamity." 

For instance, the giving or receiving of railway re- 
bates had always been dishonest, yet the railway 
manager who did not give them could declare no divi- 
dends, while the manufacturer who did not receive them 
was doomed to bankruptcy. So had we cheapened our 
laws, by the prodigality of their enactment and by the 
lax way in which we attempted their enforcement, that 
it was several years after the giving or taking of rebates 
was made illegal before any one thought of paying the 
slightest heed to the statute. Our whole public opinion 
went awry. What Herbert Spencer would have called 
the First Principles of commercial ethics were well-nigh 
obliterated. Acquiring, because of the public indifference, 
things which we should never have acquired, we soon 
came to believe that vested wrongs were vested rights. 

With the inspiration before us, it was quite natural 
that we should go money-mad. The man who "blazed 
the trail," whether in building railroads, in chopping 
down forests, or in digging coal, or gold, was accounted 
the pioneer worthy of all approbation. And not without 
a certain measure of justice. But when the rewards of 
this pioneer labor reached stupendous proportions, and 
there was an absence of legal restraints, or even correct 
standards of commercial ethics, trouble began to brew. 
Keen-witted men saw that combination was more profit- 

243 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

able than competition. Again the state of the law fa- 
vored them. In another department of life, men had been 
"blazing other trails" of which they could make use. 
For one thing, they had been developing the corporate 
form of ownership. The corporation had taken its 
origin in the King's Charter, and it was at first subject 
to the King's will and pleasure. A hundred years ago, 
there were precisely six corporations on this continent. 
The thing was practically an unknown factor in our life. 
It was too inconsequential to attract serious attention 
or to seem harmful. Also, it evidently presented many 
attractive and useful features. And so, in our happy- 
go-lucky way, we made no provision that this "King's 
Charter" should be in any wise responsible to the King. 
Corporations were formed at the sweet will of the in- 
corporators, and although they derived all of their 
rights from the Government, it occurred to no one that 
they owed any reciprocal obligation. The six corpora- 
tions of the beginning so grew in number in the century 
that to-day over 280,000 corporations, with an aggregate 
capital of approximately ninety billions of dollars, are 
paying the federal tax. 

Another set of men were meanwhile "blazing the 
trail" to intercommunication. The railroad, the steam- 
ship, the telegraph, the cable, the telephone, and, more 
than all, the newspaper, were agencies which played a 
part. A century ago a man's immediate range of vision 
was a dozen miles. To-day he has reached, as Long- 
fellow put it: 

. . . Those turrets where the eye 

Sees the world as one vast plain, 
And one boundless reach of sky. 

We became as gods, seeing everything. The giant 
corporation, with a range of vision made possible by the 
development of intercommunication, and with the ac- 
cepted view that corporate forms of ownership were 
entitled to the same freedom from the intervention of 

244 



"BLAZING THE TRAIL" 

law as private ownership was, loomed on the fore- 
ground of our national life. The menace was all too 
evident. A crisis had been reached. Brave men struck 
out boldly, and public attention was arrested and the 
public conscience aroused. How far gone were we, 
however, on the road of popular indifference is evidenced 
by the fact that it has taken more than a decade to reach 
anything like a conclusive decision from our highest 
tribunal on the law which was passed to meet the issue. 
And even this decision is apparently far from final. 

All of this means that a great problem is before us for 
solution. A new trail is to be blazed. It must lead, in 
my judgment, to a condition where we shall have statutes 
fewer, but much better enforced; where the cobwebs 
of technicality must be so swept from our court-rooms 
that "the law's delay and inefficiency" will be no longer 
the distinguishing feature of our jurisprudence; where 
the great economic problems with which we are con- 
fronted may find their solution as the result of the calm, 
dispassionate study of a thoughtful people, and once 
business men come to know their rights under the law, 
obedience shall be imperative. I have no thought of 
palliating, by anything I have said, the crimes which 
have been committed. Nor do I believe that our vigil 
for righteousness should be broken for one instant. 
But I believe that the work of the Jeremiahs has been 
done and well done ; and that we now have some need of 
Nehemiahs to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. We have 
much need of the plain, modest, unobtrusive, yet effective 
guide-post, to point the way. It is to the "blazing of 
this new trail" that we all, journalists, business men, 
professional men, patriots, should address ourselves. 

As was well said by James Russell Lowell: 

New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth. 
They must upward still and onward who would keep abreast of truth. 
Lo! before us gleam her camp-fires, we ourselves must Pilgrims be, 
Launch our Mayflower and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea, 
Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key. 

245 



"THE LIGHT THAT DID NOT FAIL"* 

By Melville E. Stone 

WE ARE met to celebrate the landing of the Pil- 
grims on Plymouth Rock. It is a story which, 
though often told, can never grow stale. It is full of 
interest and profit, and constantly renewed interest 
and profit, wherever courage is approved, rectitude 
of life respected, liberty loved, or genuine manhood 
honored. 

The present occasion has a unique value. We cele- 
brate not only the end of the Mayflower's stormy voy- 
age, but the fact that an even three hundred years 
ago, in August, 1608, John Robinson and his faithful 
band of disciples escaped to Holland; and it was three 
hundred years ago this very month that John Milton 
was born. 

There is a never-ending fascination in the study of 
organic energy. The apparently indivisible atom, in- 
conceivable because of its smallness, as well as the 
mightiest planet in the universe, equally inconceivable 
because of its vastness; also, every human thought 
and every moral aspiration — those strange impulses 
which seem to float into the brain and heart from a mys- 
terious nowhere — all of these forces, both material and 
spiritual, are obedient to the will of the Great Master, 
doing His bidding and responsive to His intelligent 
Purpose. 

The Puritan movement was a striking illustration of 

* An address delivered at the dinner of the New England Society at 
Charleston, South Carolina, on Forefathers' Day, December 22, 1908. 

246 



"THE LIGHT THAT DID NOT FAIL" 

this fact. We are now able to look back through the 
ages and see how, step by step, the world had been un- 
consciously preparing for such a development. The 
uplift was slow, the road was tortuous, the struggle was 
hard, the battle was bloody, and the people were all 
unmindful of what they were doing. They little dreamed 
that in their lives, and the part that each one played, 
be it great or be it small, they were working out a solu- 
tion of the mighty Problem which had been set for 
them. Such is the mysterious way in which God 
moves His wonders to perform. 

Let us in a moment run over the centuries to see the 
chain of events which led up to the 21st of December, 
1620 — the shortest day of the year, that on which the 
sun shone its briefest hour — but a day pregnant of great 
issues and to furnish a flood of light to a benighted 
world. In the elder days, Confucius and Plato and 
Buddha had glimpses of the Divine. They had "groped 
blindly in the darkness and had almost touched God's 
right hand in that darkness." But it was reserved for 
Jesus of Nazareth to reveal to us the truth in respect of 
man's relation to his Maker, and his relation to his 
fellow-man. It was on the hills of Judea, and nowhere 
else, that we learned of the Fatherhood of God and the 
Brotherhood of Man, and of love as the mainspring of 
correct action. 

In the largest sense, Christ came to his own and his 
own received him not. His rejection as the promised 
Messiah, his betrayal, and his tragic death, are of small 
consequence compared with the terrible fact that for 
the succeeding fourteen centuries his sublime teachings 
came to naught because of the world's refusal to under- 
stand or accept them as he would have wished. Scarcely 
was the scene on Calvary over before a changeling 
Christianity took the place of the rightful heir in the 
cradle of Civilization. Christ's own followers made the 
first mistake. Instead of teaching, as their Master had 
done, that devout thinking and devout living were the 

247 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

ends to be attained, they formulated their worship into 
the Church at Antioch, with its Bishops, and Elders, 
and Deacons, and thereafter the form began to answer 
for the substance. The so-called conversion of Constan- 
tine was a disaster, for then the unfortunate alliance of 
Church and State began. The power and stability of a 
government was, of course, immeasurably fortified when 
to the usual and temporal punishments for disobedience 
were added the threats of eternal torture. The specious 
argument of Augustine, proposing the substitution of 
Church authority for that of the crumbling Roman Em- 
pire, was all that was needed to complete the tragedy. 
Thus have we been deceived by history. These events 
have been accounted as great blessings, while, in fact, 
they were fraught with dire consequences. 

We have not time to consider the story of the Dark 
Ages. Nor is it needful. We must all, whatever be our 
viewpoint, recognize the lapse of Christianity from 
Christ's standard. We are all familiar with the many 
earnest, but futile, efforts to right things. Every holy 
order of the Mother Church is a surviving evidence of an 
attempt to correct. 

On the east coast of England lies the County of Nor- 
folk, with its capital, the fine old city of Norwich. Away 
back in the days of William the Conqueror, a company 
of Dutch weavers had settled there, and had planted 
seeds of independent thought and action which in time 
grew to large proportions. They came from that little 
corner of the world which has been called "the Cock- 
pit of Europe" — these particular ones from Flanders. 
North Italian influence was strong in the Netherlands. 
A century before the Christian era, Netherlanders had 
joined the Cimbri in their invasion of Rome, and when 
defeated by Marius had taken up their residence in 
Lombardy. These sturdy Lombards had been fighting 
for freedom for years and had already established a 
"parliamento" at Milan. They drifted back down the 
Rhine to its mouth and carried thither their looms and 

248 



"THE LIGHT THAT DID NOT FAIL" 

their spirit of independence. An ancient statute of 
Friesland, still extant, declares that "the Frisians shall 
be free as long as the wind blows out of the clouds and 
the world stands." The continued drift to the adjacent 
town of Norwich, on the English coast, was an easy and 
natural one. 

The people of Norwich were always an unruly lot. 
Edward Coke, a Norwich boy, came to be Chief Justice 
of England; defied the King's proclamation; stopped 
royal dictation to the judges, and wrote the great Peti- 
tion of Right, which in the end brought the head of 
Charles the First to the block. Horatio Nelson, another 
Norwich lad, came to be a captain in the English Navy, 
disobeyed orders off Cape St. Vincent, and won an 
Admiral's rank and undying fame. Tom Paine, still 
another Norwich youngster, drifted to America, inspired 
the Colonists to revolt, and then went to France and 
fanned the flames of discontent there. More important 
than all, however, Norwich was the Bethlehem of our 
present-day government and our present-day Chris- 
tianity. Nearly two centuries before Luther, the Lollard 
movement had passed over from Holland to Norwich. In 
the middle of the fourteenth century these same Dutch 
weavers — the Wise Men of the East, of England — were 
among the most zealous of John Wyclif's followers. 
There was preached to a sympathetic congregation 
his propaganda for vital piety and the separation of 
church and state. There and then the fires were lighted 
which were destined to flash around the world. A goodly 
number of martyrs went joyously to the stake. The 
battle was on. Thenceforward we can see what the 
Germans call Warheii im Forischritt (Truth on the 
march) . 

One day Henry the Eighth tired of his Spanish wife 
Katherine. The Pope refused a divorce. He broke with 
the Mother Church and married a Norwich girl, Anne 
Boleyn. This girl's mother was the daughter of the 
Duke of Norfolk. If you remember that the Spanish 

249 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Katherine's daughter was Mary Tudor, while the Nor- 
wich Anne Boleyn's daughter was Queen Elizabeth, you 
will see how the thing worked out. All the time it was the 
spirit of the Spanish Cavalier against that of the Dutch 
weavers. When Wyclif's dead body had been dug up 
and burned, it was believed that there was an end of his 
heresy. The latest edition of the Encyclopaedia Brit- 
annica says that within forty years after his death his 
influence was extinct. Poor history that ! 



The Avon to the Severn runs, 

The Severn to the sea; 
And Wyckliffe's dust was spread abroad, 

Wide as the waters be. 



The weavers were continuously at work fashioning a 
fabric of enormous worth to all mankind, a fabric fre- 
quently dyed in a martyr's blood. And the Dutch print- 
ers. They too were busy. They were printing Bibles 
before Luther was born. Amsterdam was little more 
than a hundred miles from Norwich, and there was 
constant communication between the two places. Thus 
it was that each weaver had his Bible which he prized 
above all his other possessions. They were known in 
England as the "Bible men." This went on until the 
English Court printer succeeded in having his Govern- 
ment forbid the sale or use of the Dutch Bibles. Secret 
Bible reading and secret worship naturally followed. 

Thomas Bilney, Latimer's most trusted coadjutor, 
went to the stake in Norwich in 1531. Like their shut- 
tles, the weavers went flying back and forth between 
Norwich and Holland to escape persecution and to 
spread their views. Although it took a century and a 
half for the seed which Wyclif planted to come to 
fruitage, there never was an hour when the weavers were 
idle. In 1555, Hugh Latimer himself went to the stake 
at Oxford crying out to his companion, as he embraced 
the flames: "Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play 

250 



"THE LIGHT THAT DID NOT FAIL" 

the man, for we shall this day light such a candle by- 
God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put 
out." 

Only five years later, one was born who was destined 
to snatch up that candle and bear it aloft. This was 
Robert Browne. When scarce twenty-one years old he 
was appointed domestic chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk, 
and this took him to Norwich. He soon caught the spirit 
of the place. It was ever a hotbed of revolt. By this 
time the Dutch weavers constituted more than half the 
population. For a hundred and fifty years they had re- 
fused their adhesion to either the Roman or the English 
Church, and had worshiped secretly or openly, as they 
dared, in an independent congregation. At this time the 
local bishop happened to be a tolerant man, so the 
weavers had established a public church, and to its pulpit 
they called young Browne. In less than a year, how- 
ever, some one was sent down from London to stop the 
business, and then, as they had often done before, many 
of them scurried off to Holland, taking Browne with 
them. 

Much has been made of Browne as the founder of a 
Separatist movement. This is a mistake. The move- 
ment was nearly two centuries old when he came to it. 
The Norwich folk had been steadily at work all the time. 
Their light had never failed. And Browne was a pretty 
weak and unworthy person at best. In Holland he wrote 
some forceful books, which were secretly introduced 
into England, and had influence, but later he recanted, 
went back to the Established Church, and died peace- 
fully within its fold. 

Neither shall we, if wise, give too much glory to the 
Puritans of Queen Elizabeth's day. They were as bit- 
terly hostile to these Norwich Separatists as any one else. 
They joined hands with the bishops to exterminate them. 
A young man, John Robinson by name, went from Cam- 
bridge University to Norwich to preach. Of course he 
caught the infection, and, after four years, the Arch- 

251 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

bishop silenced him. It was a time of bitter persecution 
in England, but of the largest liberty in Holland. 

The war between Alva, the bloody Spanish cavalier, 
and William, the Stadtholder, was over. The Dutch 
Republic, with freedom of worship, of press, and of 
school, was in full swing. One after another the Sepa- 
ratist Congregations had been banished to the Low 
Countries. About the only one remaining was that of 
John Smyth at Gainsborough. William Brewster, post- 
master and master printer of Scrooby, ten miles away, 
and William Bradford, fustian weaver of Austerfield, 
only five miles away, were members. Thither Robinson 
took himself from Norwich. In 1606, that congregation 
followed the others to Holland, and those remaining 
organized a little church in Scrooby Manor House with 
Robinson as pastor. Two years later they in turn 
escaped across the North Sea. 

Once more, too much has been made of this Scrooby 
Church, and of John Robinson himself. The congrega- 
tion soon lost its identity in Holland ; Smyth apostatized 
and on more than one occasion, Robinson was ready to 
return to the Anglican Church. Again, as ever before, it 
was the sturdy weaver who kept the candle aflame. It 
was Bradford who led the Pilgrims out of Ley den. He 
picked up Brewster at Southampton. And of all the one 
hundred and two souls on the Mayflower, these two alone 
can be identified as ever having belonged to the congre- 
gation at Scrooby. 

In writing history, we are ever searching for a leader. 
It was the very essence of the Pilgrim movement that it 
had no authoritative leaders. Browne and Smyth and 
Robinson did not create — they were created. Guided 
unerringly by a great principle, the people went on, with 
or without the co-operation of their pastors. 

I have but little more to say. I shall not trace the 
history of these people in America. You are all familiar 
with it. Like the children of Israel, they went into the 
wilderness to prepare themselves for the Promised Land. 

252 



"THE LIGHT THAT DID NOT FAIL" 

In some sense they were a highly educated company. 
They had that sort of education which Aristotle says 
"makes one do by choice what others do by force." 

We all have our moments when we would turn from 
the wearisome and dangersome struggle to an alluring 
and an enchanting peace; from self-denial to self -grati- 
fication; from the anxieties of the Roman Capital and 
the privations of her battle-fields, to the Nile banks, the 
arms of Cleopatra, and the lotus leaves. We have our 
moods when we sigh for the repose and comfort that is 
to be found in a protective paternalism. Such was not 
the spirit of the Pilgrims. Plato's pathetic story of the 
dying hours of the Athenian democracy, when, under the 
ministry of Eubulus, "a life of comfort and a craving for 
amusement were encouraged in every way, and the in- 
terest of the citizens was withdrawn from serious things," 
did not in the least apply to them. They were what 
Plato called "the small remnant of honest followers of 
wisdom." Unwilling to buy peace or ease with dishonor, 
they came to the horrors of a bleak New England wil- 
derness. They would not submit to the arbitrary laws 
of an English King, yet they imposed upon themselves 
the most rigorous laws the world has ever known. Well 
might these laws be called, as they were called, the 
"self-denying ordinances." They laid deep the founda- 
tion of a self-governing people, under which every one 
should enjoy the largest liberty in respect of his relation 
to God, but where every man should be obedient to law 
in respect of his relation to his fellow-man. 

And yet I would not have you believe that they alone 
were responsible for this republic. The late German 
ambassador once said in Berlin, "My father was Ger- 
man, my mother Scotch, and I was born in England — 
that makes me an American." The Pilgrim influence 
was of limitless value, but it was the attrition and ad- 
mixture of the Huguenot and Scotch-Irish blood which 
made us what we are. Bradford, the weaver, as Governor 
of the Plymouth Colony, brought strength, and religious 

253 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

freedom, and obedience to law. But the Huguenot refu- 
gees, who gave us of their loins, Francis Marion, and 
the two Laurenses; and the Scotch-Irish, who gave us 
Andrew Pickens and the two Rutledges, brought a softer 
and more human and more fraternal spirit. All of these 
factors went to make up the sum of virtue which char- 
acterized our forebears. 

The finest expression of the weaver spirit on American 
soil was in the congregation of the old ' ' Circular Church," 
of this city. The Massachusetts people turned Roger 
Williams out for defending "soul liberty"; here English 
refugees from Holland, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, and 
French Huguenots worshiped side by side in perfect 
harmony. 

And what did they not do for the world? Spain, in the 
persons of Cortez and Pizarro, returned gold as the result 
of their adventure. The Pilgrims, the Huguenots, and 
the Scotch-Irish returned human liberty. When the 
cry of Latimer swelled into a mighty diapason, as the 
organ tone of Milton rolled around the world, Pilgrims 
from Massachusetts Bay were back in England, voicing 
the Anthem of Freedom. It was Franklin and Tom Paine 
who stirred Paris to revolt. It was at Washington's side 
that Lafayette learned the lesson of liberty — and out of 
the French Revolution came parliamentary government 
to continental Europe. 

These, our fathers, in storm and stress, through priva- 
tion and suffering, prepared for us the blessings we now 
enjoy. If, mindful of their lofty example, we recognize 
that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," these 
blessings will endure. To no one as to us comes the di- 
vine command, "Honor thy father and thy mother; that 
thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy 
God giveth thee." 

Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, 
Lest we forget — lest we forget! 



THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION* 

By Melville E. Stone 

I AM to talk to you on Russia. I am not to deliver 
an "address" or "oration," but to have a little 
fireside talk with you in respect to that country. I 
am impressed that we in this country know very 
little of Russia, and that what little we do know has 
not been such as to create a high estimate of that 
country. 

There are many reasons for this point of view. First, 
there is no conspicuous, no large Russian colony in this 
country. I think it would be very difficult to gather, 
within the limits of the United States, one hundred in- 
telligent Russians, such as you would find among those 
at present in control of the new Government.! The 
people who have come over here have very naturally been 
the peasants of Russia and the poor, poverty-stricken 
Jews. They evoke our sympathy and pity. But we find 
it difficult to imagine Russia as an intelligent country, 
from the average specimen of her people that we find 
in New York or in the United States. 

Then, as to our other point of view respecting Rus- 
sia: Those who have traveled in Russia and who have 
come back to tell the story, related their trying experi- 
ences and annoyances growing out of the passport 
system. They have told you, if they have told you the 
truth, that they traveled in a country where no one had a 

*An address delivered before the Brooklyn Civic Club, May 2, 19 17. 
t It should be noted that this was delivered in the early days of the 
Revolution. 

255 



"M. E. S," — HIS BOOK 

smile, and they told you of the grief and the suffering 
of that gigantic population. 

Then you have also read George Kennan's story of 
the exiles to the mines and the horrors practiced by the 
Third Section of the Russian police. Then you have 
heard of pogroms, of the massacre of the Jews, and you 
have heard of the sodden, drunken peasants, where they 
all drank vodka. 

Now this is all a very dark picture, but unhappily 
it is all a very true picture of the Russia of the past. 
When we consider that the number of newspapers in 
Russia is limited to fifteen hundred or two thousand, 
all under a rigid censorship, all forbidden to express 
any views, we naturally inquire, ' ' How is it possible for 
such a country, occupied by nearly two hundred 
millions of people, of whom only 10 per cent, read 
or write any language, to achieve and maintain self- 
government?" 

That is a perfectly natural inquiry; but it makes no 
account of another side of the picture. Russia, whether 
all I have said is true or not, has another side. For one 
hundred and fifty years, in many of her activities, she 
has been one of the self-governing countries of the world. 
The little farmer who, in Russia, can neither read nor 
write, meets once a year with the other farmers in his 
vicinity or in his village (it is called a "Mir") for de- 
fensive purposes. The villages in Russia are built as 
many of the villages in the old days were. The village 
there is built in the center, and the farms radiate there- 
from. They meet in this manner, and have so met for 
more than one hundred and fifty years, once a year, to 
transact their own little local business. 

If you will read John Fiske's book on "The American 
Political Ideals and Their Origin" you will find that the 
author traces our New England town meeting back to 
the Russian "Mir." It was there that it had its origin. 
It was born in the days of Catherine II. Of course, at 
that time the serfs were not free, and the landlords 

256 




'■ V ' 






ALBERT J. BARR 
THOMAS G. RAPIER 



HERMAN R1DDER 
HARVEY W. SCOTT 



Former Directors of The Associated Press— IV 



THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

were the masters and they met in these village meetings. 
Then, in 1861, when the serfs were freed and attached 
to the land, they became participants in these meetings. 
Now a great many of these people cannot read or write, 
but they are taught by practice a form of self-govern- 
ment. 

There are some rather interesting and amusing in- 
cidents in connection with these annual meetings of the 
Russians. For instance, every year they re-allot the 
farms and, curiously enough, the man who grumbles 
is the man who gets the best farm, because he will have 
to pay more taxes and work harder, and he would rather 
have a poor farm and work less and pay less taxes. 

They have a second form of self-government — they 
hold their municipal elections in the cities. They have 
had municipal elections for years. They also have a 
third form, which is analogous to the County Councils 
of England, covering a larger field. These are the 
Zemstvos, and they are self-governing. And finally, 
they have a fourth form — the Duma, which was given 
them in 1905 by the Emperor Nicholas. The people 
have been trained through all these activities in self- 
government. 

You have read, of course, of bomb-throwing in Russia, 
the work of the Nihilists and of the revolutionaries. But 
underlying all these things, Russia in the main has been 
a quiet and orderly country. Two things in her history 
that stand out as wonderfully significant are, first, that 
when Alexander freed the serfs (which was a thing of 
great moment, involving, as it did, the fortunes of a great 
many men) it was done quietly and calmly; the landlords 
of Russia participated in it, approved it, and there was 
no excitement and no disturbance. 

Then since this war you have had an illustration of 
the calm character of the Russian people. By a stroke 
of the pen vodka disappeared entirely from every table 
in Russia. I said to a friend of mine, a colonel of a 
Siberian regiment, who was over here recently, "Was 
17 257 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

there no dissent ?" ' * No, ' ' he replied. ' ' Did it depend 
entirely upon the supreme authority of the autocrat of 
the Russians?" I asked. "No," he said. "We all rec- 
ognized that vodka-drinking was a curse. In my own 
case my brother and I had two vodka factories, and when 
this order came we said, 'Well, it means bankruptcy, but 
it is right and we are going to do it ; we are not going to 
dissent from the order of His Majesty.' We converted 
our factories into munition factories; we put our people 
at work in them and we have been saved by them. Of 
course we are not making nearly the amount of money 
we did before." 

I do not know whether you read the stories The 
Associated Press had recently on the liberation of the 
Siberian exiles. These despatches were of a very re- 
markable character. One that impressed me very 
greatly was written by Mr. Robert Crozier Long, whom 
I sent from Stockholm to Petrograd, and out into Asia, 
to meet the incoming exiles from the mines. You may 
be interested in my calling renewed attention to them, 
as giving some illustration of the Russian character. 

Out near some point — Irkutsk or Omsk — there was a 
governor of a prison who heard of the revolution. The 
prisoners didn't hear of it, but the governor knew it 
was coming. "Well," he said, "I am going to flog them 
once to-day, anyhow, so they will enjoy freedom when 
they get it." So he called them in and flogged them, and 
then disappeared. The parish priest told them of the 
revolution and informed them they were all free, and they 
went down to get this man, who had indulged in the 
flogging process in the morning. And they found him, 
and of course they were greatly incensed and they wanted 
to kill him. One of them said, ' ' No — No, we will not 
do it. We will not stain this revolution by murder!" 
And they didn't. 

Now I have very great hope for the future of Russia. 
I first visited Russia something like twenty-five or 
twenty-seven years ago. I have been there frequently 

258 



THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

since. The Russian people are a kindly people. There 
was never any reason in the world for the racial quarrel 
that existed there, except that it was stimulated by the 
bureaucracy. The Kishinev massacre, the Lodz mas- 
sacre and the others were all stimulated by a number of 
Chauvinists, who were acting in conjunction with the 
St. Petersburg bureaucracy. 

That went on and on and on until it finally reached 
a point where no member of the bureaucracy felt that 
he was safe; these attacks which were made by the 
Third Section of the Czar's police were likely to reach 
him. A man would sit in his apartment or in his home 
in St. Petersburg. There would come a rap on the door. 
A polite young man in citizen's clothing would be intro- 
duced. He would say to this home-staying body "They 
would like to see you down at Police Headquarters. 
There is a carriage down-stairs; will you come down?" 
He would put on his hat and coat and go down. He was 
taken to Police Headquarters and then, without trial, 
without any knowledge as to his offense, he found him- 
self sent to one of the dungeons in the prison of St. 
Peter and St. Paul on an island in the Neva. 

Well, the next day his family, not knowing, but 
suspecting that something was wrong, took steps to in- 
quire. The man's brother went to the prison and asked 
the keeper if Ivan was there. The keeper said, ' ' Well, who 
are you, that you should inquire ?" "I am his brother. ' ' 
"Oh, you are." "Yes." "And you want to see your 
brother ?" " Yes. " " Well the next cell to his is vacant, 
and you shall have it." 

And so he was incarcerated. And those two men were 
sent to Siberia, and unless by some fortuitous circum- 
stance they could get word out, their families, who had 
not the faintest idea of their whereabouts, might never 
know what their fate had been. That condition had 
gone on. Bureaucratic, tyrannous government had be- 
come intolerable for every one. It had its terrors for 
even the bureaucrats themselves. The leltres de cachet 

259 



"M. E. S/' — HIS BOOK 

of Mirabeau's day were harmless compared with the 
diabolism practiced by the Third Section of the Czar's 
police. 

If a man of the bureaucracy for any reason felt he 
would like to see another member of the bureaucracy put 
out of the way — and sometimes for reasons that are amaz- 
ing — he might take the husband of a woman whom he 
wanted. If he wanted a fellow bureaucrat put out of the 
way he would make some charge against this bureaucrat, 
and if he could get the ear of the Third Section, this 
bureaucrat himself would go to Siberia. 

Now they reached a point where the bureaucracy of 
Russia overturned almost all of the decisions of the 
"Mir" and of the municipal elections, and of the 
Zemstvos, and closed the Duma and reached down with 
such terrible tyranny upon them that they finally, all of 
them, even bureaucrats, were glad to have the revolu- 
tion. 

I don't think the Emperor was as responsible for 
these conditions as perhaps would appear on the surface. 
I remember a very interesting talk I had with him, in 
which he said, "If they let me live, I will give Russia a 
government modeled after the British Government. My 
mother was an Englishwoman ; my tutor was an English 
clergyman. Don't make any mistake; I know what a 
limited monarchy is. And English is the language of 
our home." (It is the Court language at the Winter 
Palace and Tsarskoe-Selo.) He said, "I do not know 
whether they will let me live or not. My grandfather 
undertook to give them a constitution, but on the very 
day he had given it to them he was assassinated." 

Now that brings me to a point of view in respect to 
Russia that I think is a just one. I know that Dr. 
Andrew D. White has said he thought Nicholas was 
savage in his instinct — a view growing out of a state- 
ment Nicholas made in his presence when Dr. White 
was our Ambassador to Russia. I do not agree with 
him. He is a coward, and small wonder that he is a 

260 



THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

coward. He has lived in the atmosphere of poison and 
of bombs, and he has exemplified the theory that, "all 
cowards are brutes." It is inherent in him; it is a part 
of his nature. That was expressed by Plehve, the Min- 
ister of the Interior. I was talking to him about the 
abolition of the censorship and he said, "Oh, no, I don't 
think it can be done." "Well," I said, "I am sorry I 
don't agree with you. I don't think these repressive 
measures will work out in the end. Of course all govern- 
ment is repressive in a measure, but over-repression ends 
in revolution." "Well," he said, "if you drop the lines 
the horses are going to run away." 

Now that is the attitude and has been the attitude 
of the country so far. " If you drop the lines the horses 
would run away." All you had to do to induce the 
Emperor to send a man to Siberia was to say, "Well, 
your children are in danger." "This man is a revolu- 
tionist." "This man will poison your food." "This 
man will throw a bomb and kill you." 

While I think Nicholas honestly wished to give them 
a better government, he countenanced tyranny and bar- 
barism out of his fears, until it became absolutely un- 
endurable. 

If you will read the authenticated history of your own 
country you will learn that, from the very foundation 
of the Republic to this hour, Russia has been our stead- 
fast friend. Not a friend in lavish professions — to 
whisper a tale of devotion to our ear in the moment 
of our triumph, only to break faith with us in the moment 
of our trial — but a friend who has ever held out a helping 
hand in every time of need. If you care to learn the 
story you will find it in the diary of John Quincy Adams, 
in Thiers' "History of the Consulate and Empire" of 
Bonaparte; in the letters and reports of Bayard Taylor 
and Cassius M. Clay, and every minister and every am- 
bassador and every charge of this country at St. Peters- 
burg. It was not the unbroken squares of Wellington 
under the shadow of Mont St. Jean that sealed Napo- 

261 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

leon's doom, it was the friendship of Alexander, the Czar 
of Russia, for the Americans, four years earlier. There 
was an hour when an American President — Madison — 
had but one minister at any court of Europe and that 
minister was at St. Petersburg. And that minister was 
John Quincy Adams, "the old man eloquent." Russia 
and France were in close alliance as the result of the 
famous treaty on the raft at Tilsit. The Berlin and 
Milan decrees had been issued forbidding commerce with 
Britain by any of the continental Powers which were 
under Napoleon's thumb. By direction of the French 
Emperor, American ships were classed with British ships, 
because we had refused to obey his command that we 
make war on Great Britain. Adams was sent as minister 
to Russia. On his way, pursuant to Bonaparte's decree, 
he found fifty American merchantmen held by order 
of the French Emperor, for trial by a Danish prize court 
at Copenhagen. He stopped and protested, but in vain. 
He pushed on to St. Petersburg; he begged Russia to in- 
tervene. Russia was committed by her alliance with 
France to the Berlin and Milan decrees. The Russian 
Minister of Foreign Affairs declined the demand of 
Adams. Then Adams went to Alexander, the Russian 
Emperor, and the Czar struck the blow which toppled 
the mighty Corsican from his throne and finally sent 
him to St. Helena. Overruling his minister, he not 
only compelled the release of the impounded American 
ships at Copenhagan, but, defying his French allies, 
he opened all of the Russian ports to American commerce. 
And later, through his influence, he induced Sweden, 
under John Bernadotte, to join in defying the Milan de- 
crees and to allow American vessels to enter the ports 
of Sweden; and because of this — because of this act — 
the alliance between France and Russia was broken, and 
Russia and Sweden joined with England in marching on 
to Waterloo and to Paris. Criticizing his Imperial Mas- 
ter on that occasion, the Russian Minister of Foreign 
Affairs said to Mr. Adams, ' ' Our friendship for America 

262 



THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

is obstinate, more obstinate than you know." It was so 
obstinate that for it Alexander broke with Napoleon and 
remade the map of Europe. 

But, two years after Waterloo, and while Russia was 
fresh in her alliance with Britain, she gave us another 
signal evidence of her friendship for the United States. 
We quarreled with England over the construction of 
the treaty of Ghent, and the matter was submitted 
to Alexander, the same Russian Emperor as arbiter, 
and he decided in our favor. But still later, when 
we were in the throes of the Civil War, another Alex- 
ander, another Czar of the Russians, sent two fleets, 
not one, to New York and San Francisco, to testify 
that there was one civilized power of Europe who 
was our friend. 

I know that doubt has been cast upon the statement 
that these fleets were under sealed orders to report to 
President Lincoln in case England and France under- 
took to intervene, and although there is much evidence 
that such was the fact (indeed, Minister Lothrop, who 
was our minister there, left testimony that he himself 
had seen the sealed orders) — although there is much 
evidence to sustain that statement I do not care to assert 
it. What is of still greater importance and significance, 
and what cannot be challenged, is a letter from Bayard 
Taylor to Secretary Seward written in the hour of our 
sorest peril and detailing an audience with Gortschakoff, 
the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs : ' ' Russia alone 
has stood by you from the first and will continue to stand 
by you, ' ' said Prince Gortschakoff to Mr. Taylor. ' ' Pro- 
posals will be made to Russia to join in some plan of 
interference. She will refuse any invitation of the kind. 
Russia will occupy the same ground as at the beginning 
of the struggle. You may rely upon it. She will not 
change. " Turn to the diplomatic papers of the Govern- 
ment for 1862 and read that letter and imagine what it 
meant to the agonized soul of Lincoln. I am sure it is 
not too much to say that but for Russia's firm attitude 

263 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

of friendship there would have been an intervention and 
probably the resultant disruption of this Union. 

Such, gentlemen, is our obligation to Russia. 

We are engaged in a great world struggle for Democ- 
racy. You have had the most wonderful illustration 
in Russia of a people rising in its might. As I said the 
other night, I firmly believe that if all the blood that has 
been spilled and all the wealth that has been spent in 
this war results only in a free Russia, it will have been 
well worth all it has cost humanity. 



THE HIGH COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION* 

By Melville E. Stone 

IT IS a pleasure to share in the celebration of another 
of those centennials that have occurred and recurred 
in this country so frequently during the last thirty-three 
years. They obviously and naturally began with the 
celebration at Philadelphia, in 1876, of the opening 
of the great struggle which resulted in the establishment, 
for the first time in the history of the world, of a gov- 
ernment deriving its just powers from the consent of the 
governed. It is fitting also that this celebration, com- 
memorating the one hundredth anniversary of the first 
newspaper in the Territory of Michigan, should be held 
in this beautiful auditorium, which was the creation of 
the brain and soul of one of your journalists. 

There is a strange fascination in looking back over the 
historic plain of a hundred years and noting the high 
points that here and there rise against the sky. As I 
have said, for thirty-three years we have been celebrat- 
ing centennials. The one at Marietta, Ohio, seems to 
me the most significant of all. It celebrated the be- 
ginning of the Northwest Territory, of which what is 
now the State of Michigan was a portion. And the 
part which this Northwest Territory played in the devel- 
opment and preservation of our American Republic 
was of enormous importance. Indeed, it was more than 
that, and I think we, the sons of that Northwest Ter- 
ritory, may fairly boast that, but for it, there probably 

* An address delivered at the Centennial of the establishment of the 
first newspaper in Michigan, — The Detroit Free Press — at Detroit, 
Michigan, June 8, 1909. 

265 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

would be no United States to-day. In two ways it 
saved the Union — first, by reason of its very existence, 
and second, by reason of the singularly wise law origi- 
nally enacted by Congress for its government — the great 
ordinance of 1787. 

The close of the Revolutionary War left the colonies 
in a condition well nigh chaotic. They were thirteen 
independent sovereignties with no well-defined purpose 
to form a nation. It was a critical hour. Washington 
almost despaired of saving the country from a state of 
anarchy, and Hamilton openly predicted that the Union 
would not last twenty years. Then Virginia and New 
York and Massachusetts and Connecticut surrendered 
to the general Government their claims to these western 
lands; the warring colonies found themselves possessed 
of a common property to develop and protect; and the 
need of a strong central authority became apparent. 
This was the thing which vitalized the idea of a Federal 
Union. It saved to us the Republic with all the bless- 
ings which we now enjoy. 

But the ordinance of 1787, passed by Congress some 
months before the Federal Constitution was perfected, 
meant even more. It was an extraordinary document. 
Daniel Webster in his reply to Hayne said he doubted 
whether one single law of any law-giver, ancient or mod- 
ern, had produced effects of more distinct, marked and 
lasting character. Yet Webster, truthful and well de- 
served as was his tribute, died and was buried before the 
American people had come to a realization of the full 
measure of benefit in store for them as a result of this 
great enactment. Each of its six brief articles was 
pregnant of great results. 

Its opening declaration, in simple and direct phrase, 
guaranteed, as had never been done before on this earth, 
what Roger Williams so well called "soul liberty," and 
provided that no one should ever be molested in the 
territory on account of his mode of worship, or religious 
sentiments. There was a bill of rights, incomplete, yet 

266 



THE HIGH COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION 

far in advance of anything the world had ever known. 
Free public schools were foreshadowed. The old laws 
of primogeniture were swept away and our law for descent 
of property established. For the first time the goods of 
one dying intestate were divided between sons and 
daughters alike. The just treatment of the Indians 
was enjoined. And, in passing, this clause reminds me 
to say that the popular belief that the American people 
have so waged a war of extermination upon the aborigines 
that they are practically extinct, is wholly without war- 
rant. I believe it to be true that there are many more 
Indians living within the confines of the United States 
to-day than there ever were in the earlier days of the 
Republic. There were then a few tribes scattered along 
the Atlantic littoral, and about the great lakes and 
rivers of the West. While, of course, we have no definite 
figures, since it was impossible that there should be an 
enumeration of them in their savage state, it is evident 
from their nomadic character and the wide area over 
which they roamed and hunted that their number 
must have been limited. Moreover, the slightest in- 
vestigation of our Indian wars must convince you that 
the number of those killed in battle was, after all, in the 
aggregate, comparatively insignificant. And there are 
now, exclusive of Alaska, over 250,000 Indians in our 
country. 

But it was the fourth, fifth, and sixth articles of the 
immortal ordinance which in the end were destined to 
sweep away the foul blot of human slavery and to save 
the Union in the War of the Rebellion. Provision was 
made in the law that five States should be carved out of 
the territory, and as an inalienable fraction of their title 
to existence, it was declared that they should forever 
remain a part of the United States. Finally, as the 
crowning glory of this achievement of our forefathers 
was the solemn declaration that within the limits of the 
Northwest Territory, there should be neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment 

267 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

for crime whereof the party should have been duly- 
convicted. 

It was Lewis Cass of Michigan, and not Stephen A. 
Douglas of Illinois, who invented the theory of what 
was popularly known as "Squatter Sovereignty." And 
it was altogether fitting and proper that under the 
oaks at Jackson, in this State of Michigan, on the 6th 
of July, 1854, there should be brought into being the 
great Republican party, having for its purpose the 
defence and enforcement of the right of the National 
Government to stay the onward march of slavery into 
the national territory. For it was upon this dogma 
that the Republican party was founded: it was upon 
this dogma that Mr. Lincoln debated with Douglas, 
and upon it based his great Cooper Institute speech, 
which made him President of the United States. If 
slavery could not spread into the territories it must 
die. 

Such was the basic principle of the Republican party, 
a principle founded on the action of Congress in passing 
the ordinance of 1787. Neither Mr. Lincoln nor the 
Republican party stood distinctly for the abolition of 
slavery. It is not at all certain they would have been 
victorious if they had. They stood for the sovereign 
right of the National Government to follow in the 
footsteps of the Fathers who passed this great law and 
thereby they saved the Union and they destroyed 
slavery. 

This year of our Lord 1787 was a great one for the 
human race. After all, the spirit of '76 was a spirit of 
protest against the tyranny of George III.; the spirit 
of '87 was a spirit of constructive effort for liberty. 
Following hard upon the passage of this great ordinance, 
and but a few months later, was the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution by the Philadelphia Convention. 
Of it Mr. Gladstone said, after mature reflection, it 
was "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a 
given time by the brain and purpose of man." 

268 



THE HIGH COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION 

But there were other factors than the ordinance of 
1787, and the Federal Constitution, needful for our 
permanency. Chief among these was the development 
of intercommunication. And the means were at hand. 
It was in this very year 1787, by John Fitch, of Philadel- 
phia — and not twenty years later, by Robert Fulton, as 
is generally supposed — that the steamboat was invented 
and came into use. The members of the convention 
who were framing the Federal Constitution witnessed 
his journey up and down the Delaware River. In order 
to raise the money with which to carry on his experiments 
and to secure his patents poor Fitch drew a map of this 
Northwest Territory with his own hands, printed it on 
a cider press, and sold the copies from door to door. He 
sought unavailingly a helpful appropriation from Con- 
gress. Finally bankrupted in his struggle for recogni- 
tion, he committed suicide and went to oblivion. His 
contribution should have immortalized him. 

How this development of intercommunication went 
on you shall see. The nineteenth century must stand 
out in all history distinctly as the century in which 
intercommunication was developed. The first amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States, and 
one of the earliest achievements of the first Congress 
of the Republic, was the provision that no national 
law should be enacted abridging the freedom of the 
press. 

It is an interesting coincidence that the oldest of 
existing newspapers in your city, one founded before 
Michigan was a State, bears the name, The Free Press, 
while the first steamboat floated in Western waters 
made its initial voyage to Detroit. 

In the history of the world it will be noted there 
have been from time to time brief periods when there 
seemed to be a sudden awakening from sleep, and we 
strode on in our march of progress with seven-league 
boots. Such was the period in the fifteenth century, 
when the Reformation and the discovery of printing 

269 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

by movable types came hand-in-hand for the world's 
enlightenment. 

Such again was the period in the nineteenth century, 
when within a few short years came the steamship, the 
railroad, the art of stereotyping, the fast press, and 
the telegraph, and following came the Atlantic cable, 
the telephone, and wireless transmission. It was as if 
again, as at the dawn of creation, the Almighty issued 
His majestic mandate, ' ' Let there be light, and there was 
light." Time was when we thought it necessary to 
move the seat of Government from the banks of the 
Potomac to some central point. To-day, who cares 
where the seat of Government is? We are transported 
by invisible arms to the national capitol, wherever it 
may be, and day by day we look in upon the acts of our 
Legislators quite as freely as if we were physically 
present. 

In all this business the highest exponent of inter- 
communication is, of course, the newspaper. It is 
indeed the very governing force, not alone of this country, 
but of the world. It constitutes the High Court of 
Public Opinion. At the bar of this court, all men, 
whether of high or of low degree, must make answer. 
Admit — and no one will do it more readily than I — its 
failings, the fact it has human limitations, that the 
frailties common to mankind tinge, modify and hurt 
its usefulness ; still the newspaper is the best expression 
of public opinion, and public opinion, after all, governs 
the world. 

Mr. Bryce, in his admirable work upon the American 
Commonwealth has said that the newspaper has a 
three-fold mission ; it is the town gossip, telling you the 
news; it is the oracle directing your opinions; and it is 
the weather-vane indicating which way the wind blows. 
Well, I have not so much regard for it as an oracle, but I 
think the service it renders as a gossip is of the highest 
value and very great ethical worth. It reaches out 
into every region where human activities have play, it 

270 



THE HIGH COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION 

combs the earth for all of its happenings, and it brings 
and lays at your feet, and practically without cost, the 
results of its enterprise. 

Are you a merchant or a manufacturer? Your daily 
life is guided by the information which comes to you 
almost hourly in your newspaper. But in a larger sense 
this means little. What means most is that no great harm 
can come to the sons of men anywhere on this rolling 
globe so long as the fierce light of publicity shines on. 
To use the phrase of a distinguished jurist, "A mountain 
clapped its black hand upon a poor city of Martinque, 
and before the smoke had cleared from the sky, because 
the story had been told in the news despatches, ships 
laden with the bounty of mankind were sailing from all 
the ports of the world." 

One Sunday morning a few years ago, while the Ports- 
mouth Peace Conference was in session, a distinguished 
representative of the Japanese Government telephoned 
me and solicited an interview. Japan had demanded 
an indemnity of eight hundred millions of dollars which 
Russia had refused to give. Baron Kaneko asked me if 
I believed Russia immovable. I replied that I did 
not doubt it; that I had been assured that Witte and 
Rosen were under orders of their sovereign to leave 
and break up the conference on the following Tuesday. 
"Then," said Kaneko, "we must abandon all claim for 
indemnity because we cannot stand in the eyes of the 
world as pursuing a war for mere money." 

Still more recently Sicily and Calabria were stricken 
by a great earthquake. One of our supply-ships was 
lying at Brooklyn Navy Yard loading with provisions 
to meet our fleet of battle-ships returning from the 
memorable voyage around the world. The news of the 
Italian disaster was flashed across the sea by an Asso- 
ciated Press correspondent and in forty-eight hours, 
under orders from the Government, the supply-ship set 
sail, not to meet the battle-ships, but to carry food to 
Messina. And thus thousands of lives were saved. 

271 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

From far-off Asiatic Turkey came the story a few weeks 
ago of a horrible massacre of unnumbered Christians. 
How in response there went back a great store of the 
world's munificence is fresh in the minds of all. 

It was the world's public opinion developed by the 
press despatches which compelled Abdul-Hamid to 
abdicate the throne of Turkey, but equally it was the 
world's public opinion developed by the press despatches 
which forbade the victorious Young Turks to take 
Abdul-Hamid's life. 

All of which means, if I read history aright, that in the 
end the world is, and must be, governed by public 
opinion. Wrong, tyranny, oppression can only survive 
in those dark holes to which the light of publicity does 
not penetrate. And day by day these dark spots are 
growing fewer in number. For the bulwarking of slav- 
ery, the arguments of Cass and Douglas, the opinions of 
Taney's Supreme Court, the Mexican war and the re- 
bellion, were all in vain. The decision of the high court 
of public opinion determined the issue. And it is by 
and through intercommunication that an enlightened 
public opinion alone may be crystallized. And, as I 
have said, the newspaper is the last and best means of 
intercommunication . 

How heavy, then, is the responsibility resting upon 
those who conduct our public journals. They are 
charged with a duty of the most momentous character. 
Fortunately with them, as with none others, "honesty 
is the best policy." They wear their hearts upon their 
sleeves. They cannot long deceive the people. 




Former Directors of The Associated Press— V 

GEN. CHARLES H. TAYLOR GEORGE THOMPSON 



COL. CHARLES A. BOYNTON 

Late Superintendent. Southern Division 

a beloved veteran of the old days 



CRITICISMS OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

TWO LETTERS IN REPLY TO ATTACKS UPON THE 

ORGANIZATION; PUBLISHED IN "THE ATLANTIC 

MONTHLY" AND IN "COLLIER'S WEEKLY" 

By Melville E. Stone 

FROM time to time there have been epidemics of 
criticism of The Associated Press. In connection 
with these Mr. Stone has carried on voluminous corre- 
spondence, some of which has been published. In the 
summer of 19 14 there was one of these interchanges. 
The letters written at that time, in answer to articles 
printed in the Atlantic Monthly and in Collier's Weekly, 
are so clear in their setting-forth of the truth about 
certain little-understood and frequently misrepresented 
aspects of the service; and at the same time so typical 
as examples of the patience with which Mr. Stone has 
explained these matters, that it has seemed appropriate 
to include them in this volume. The nature of the 
article in the Atlantic to which it is a reply seems suf- 
ficiently indicated in the text of Mr. Stone's letter: 

New York, August 1, 191 4. 

Editor, Atlantic Monthly: 

An article under the title "The Problem of The Associated Press" 
appeared in the July issue of the Atlantic. It was anonymous and 
may be without claim to regard. It is marred by several mistakes of 
fact. Some of them are inexcusable; the truth might so easily have 
been learned. Nevertheless it is desirable that everybody should 
know all about The Associated Press, whether it is an unlawful 
and dangerous monopoly, or whether it is in the business of circulat- 
ing "tainted news." Its telegrams are published in full or in ab- 
breviated form, in nearly nine hundred daily newspapers having an 
18 273 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

aggregate circulation of many millions of copies. Upon the accuracy 
of these news despatches, one-half of the people of the United States 
depend for the conduct of their various enterprises, as well as for the 
facts upon which to base their opinions of the activities of the world. 
With a self-governing nation, it is all-important that such an agency 
as The Associated Press furnish as nearly as may be the truth. To 
mislead is an act of treason. 

The writer's history is at fault. For instance, the former Asso- 
ciated Press never bought a controlling share of the old-time United 
Press, as he alleges. Nor did the Chicago Inter-Ocean go to law 
because it was refused admission. It was a charter member; it 
admittedly violated a By-Law, discipline was administered and 
against this discipline the law was invoked, and a decision adverse 
to the then existing Associated Press resulted. The assertion that a 
" franchise to a newspaper in New York or Chicago is worth from 
$50,000 to $200,000" will amuse thousands of people who know 
that five morning Associated Press newspapers of Chicago, the 
Chronicle, the Record, the Times, the Freie Presse, and the Inter- 
Ocean, have ceased publication in the somewhat recent past, and 
their owners have not received a penny for their so-called "fran- 
chises." The Boston Traveler and Evening Journal were absorbed 
and their memberships thrown away. The Christian Science Monitor* 
voluntarily gave up its membership and took another service which 
it preferred. The Hartford Post, Bridgeport Post, New Haven 
Union, and Schenectady Union did the same. Cases where Asso- 
ciated Press papers have ceased publication have not been infrequent. 
Witness the Worcester Spy, St. Paul Globe, Minneapolis Times, Den- 
ver Republican, San Francisco Call, New Orleans Picayune, Indian- 
apolis Sentinel, and Philadelphia Times, as well as many others. 

The statement that the Press Association of England is an un- 
limited co-operative organization betrays incomplete information. 
Instead it is a share company with an issued capital of £49,440 ster- 
ling. On this, in 1913, it made £3,708 9s. iod., or nearly 8 per cent. 
And it had in its treasury at the close of that year a surplus of 
£23,281 19s. 6d, or a sum nearly equal to 50 per cent, of- its capitali- 
zation. It sells news to newspapers, clubs, hotels, and news-rooms. 
It is not, as is The Associated Press, a clearing-house for the exchange 
of news. It gathers all of its information by its own employees 
and sells it outright. Finally, it does not serve all applicants, but 
declines, as it always has, to furnish its news to the London papers. 

But there is more important matter. It is said that the business 
of collecting and distributing news is essentially monopolistic. But 
how can this be? The field is an open one. A single reporter may 

* As these pages go to press, the Christian Science Monitor returns to 
membership in The Associated Press. 

274 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

enter it and so may an association of reporters. The business in 
any case may be confined to the news of a city or it may be extended 
to include a state, a nation, or the world. The material facilities 
for the transmission of news, so far as they are of a public or quasi- 
public nature, the mail or the telegraph, are open to the use of all 
on the same terms. The subject matter of news, events of general 
interest, are not property and cannot be appropriated. The element 
of property exists only in the story of the event which the reporter 
makes and the diligence which he uses to bring it to the place of 
publication. This element of property is simply the right of the 
reporter to the fruit of his own labor. The "Recessional" was a 
report of the Queen's Jubilee. It was made by Rudyard Kipling 
and was his property for that reason, to be disposed of by him as 
he thought proper. He might have copyrighted it and reserved 
to himself the exclusive right of publication during the period of 
the copyright. He chose rather to use his common law right of 
first publication and he did this by selling it to the London Times. 
He was not under obligation, moral or legal, to sell it at the same 
time to any other publisher. Every other reporter stands upon the 
same footing and as the author of his story is, by every principle of 
law and equity, entitled to a monopoly of his manuscript until he 
voluntarily assigns it or surrenders it to the public. He does not 
monopolize the news. He cannot do that, for real news is as woman's 
wit, of which Rosalind said, "Make the door upon it and it will out 
at the casement; shut that and 'twill out at the keyhole; stop that, 
'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney." The reporter as a 
mere laborer, engaged in personal service, is simply free from com- 
pulsion to give or sell his labor to one seeking it. Such is the state 
of the law to-day. And the English courts go farther and uniformly 
hold that news telegrams may not be pirated, even after publication. 
In a dozen British colonies statutory protection of such despatches 
is given for varying periods. In this country there have been a 
number of decisions looking to the same end. The output of The 
Associated Press is not the news; it is a story of the news written 
by reporters, employed to serve the membership. The organization 
issues no newspaper; it prints nothing. As a reporter, it brings its 
copy to the editor, who is free to print it, abbreviate it, or throw it 
away. And to this reporter's work, the reporter and the members 
employing him have, by law and morals, undeniably an exclusive 
right. 

The next question involves the integrity of The Associated Press 
service. The instances of alleged bias he cites are unfortunate. 
Any claim that the doings of the Progressives in 191 2 were "blank- 
eted" by The Associated Press is certainly unwarranted. Our 
records show that the organization reported more than thrice the 

275 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

number of words concerning the activities of the Progressives than 
of those of all their opponents combined. There were reasons 
for this. It was a new party in the field, and naturally awakened 
unusual interest. But also, it should be said that Colonel Roosevelt 
has expert knowledge of newspaper methods. He understands the 
value of preparing his speeches in advance and furnishing them 
in time to enable The Associated Press to send them to its members 
by mail. They are put in type in the newspaper offices leisurely 
and the proofs are carefully read. When one of his speeches is 
delivered, a word or two by telegraph "releases" it, and a full and 
accurate publication of his views results. While he was President 
he often gave us his messages a month in advance; they were mailed 
to Europe and to the Far East and appeared in the papers abroad 
the morning after their delivery to Congress. Before he went to 
Africa, the speeches he delivered a year later at Oxford and in Paris 
were prepared, put in type, proof-read, and laid away for use when 
required. This is not an unusual nor an unwise practice. It assures 
a speaker wide publicity and saves him the annoyance of faulty 
reporting. Neither Mr. Wilson nor Mr. Taft was able to do this, 
although frequently urged to do so. They spoke extemporaneously, 
often late in the evening, and under conditions which made it physi- 
cally impossible to make a satisfactory report, or to transmit it by 
wire broadcast over the country. 

As to the West Virginia coal strike: A magazine charged that 
The Associated Press had suppressed the facts and that as a con- 
sequence no one knew there had been trouble. The authors were 
indicted for libel. One witness only has yet been heard. He was 
called by the defense, and in the taking of his deposition it was 
disclosed that at the date of the publication over ninety-three thou- 
sand words had been delivered by The Associated Press to the New 
York papers. Something like sixty columns respecting the matter 
had been printed. 

However, "The point to be noticed," says the writer, "is that it 
[The Associated Press] might color news if it wanted to, and that it 
does exercise certain monopolistic functions. That in itself is a 
dangerous state of affairs; but it seems to be one that might be 
rectified." And, as a remedy, he proposes that "its service should 
be open to all customers." This is most interesting. If the news 
service is untrustworthy, it would naturally seem plain that the 
activities of the agency should be restricted, not extended. Instead 
of enlarging its fields of operations, there should be, if possible, 
a law forbidding it to take in any new members, or, indeed, sum- 
marily putting it out of business. If The Associated Press is corrupt, 
it is too large now and no other newspaper should be subjected to its 
baleful influence. 

276 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Your critic adds that then "if its news were none the less unfair, 
some arrangement could presumably be made for Government re- 
straint." Since the battle against Government control of the press 
was fought nearly two centuries ago, it seems scarcely worth 
while to waste much effort over this suggestion. Censorship 
by the King's agents was the finest flower of medieval tyranny. 
It is hard to believe that any one, in this hour, should suggest a 
return to it. 

Under the closely censored method of this co-operative organiza- 
tion, notwithstanding the wide range of its operations and although 
its service has included millions of words every month, it is proper 
to say that there has never been a trial for libel nor have the ex- 
penses in connection with libel suits exceeded a thousand dollars in 
the aggregate. This should be accepted as some evidence of the 
standard of accuracy maintained. 

As to the refusal of The Associated Press to admit to membership 
every applicant, the suggestion is made that this puts such a limit 
on the number of newspapers as to "stifle trade in the selling of 
news." Thus, says your critic, the Association is "the mother, 
potential and sometimes actual, of countless small monopolies." 
In reply, it may be said that we are in no danger of a dearth of news- 
papers. There are more news journals in the United States than in 
all the world beside. If the whole foreign world were divided into 
nations of the size of this country, each nation would have but 
eighty daily newspapers, while we have over twenty-four hundred. 
And as to circulation, we issue a copy of a daily paper for every 
three of our citizens who can read and are over ten years of age. 
With our methods of rapid transportation, hundreds of daily papers 
might be discontinued and still leave every citizen able to have 
his morning paper delivered at his breakfast table. Every morning 
paper between New York and Chicago might be suppressed and yet, 
by the fast mail trains, papers from the two terminal cities could be 
delivered so promptly that no one in the intervening area would be 
left without the current world's news. Every angle of every fad, 
or ism, outside the walls of Bedlam, finds an advocate with the 
largest freedom of expression. Our need is not for more papers, 
but for better papers — papers issuing truthful news and with clearer 
sense of perspective as to news. 

Entirely independent of The Associated Press, or any influence it 
might have upon the situation, there has been a noticeable shrinkage 
in the number of important newspapers in the recent past. One 
reason has been the lack of demand by the public for the old-time 
partisan journal. Instead, the very proper requirement has been 
for papers furnishing the news impartially, and communities there- 
fore no longer divide, as formerly, on political lines in their choice 

277 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

of newspapers. The increased cost of white paper and of labor 
has also had an effect. 

Since there are some five hundred or more daily newspapers 
getting on very well without the advantage of The Associated 
Press "franchises," it can hardly be said that we have reached a 
stage where this service is indispensable. This is strikingly true in 
the light of the fact that in a number of cities the papers making 
the largest profits are those that have not, nor have they ever had, 
membership in The Associated Press. 

It will be agreed at once that private right must ever give way to 
public good. If it can be shown that, as contended, the national 
welfare requires that those who, without any advantage over their 
fellow-editors, have built up an efficient co-operative news-gathering 
agency, must share the accumulated value of the good-will they 
have achieved, with those who have been less energetic, we may have 
to give heed to the claim. Such a contention, so persistently urged 
as it has been, is certainly flattering to the membership and manage- 
ment of The Associated Press. But, however agreeable it always is 
to divide up other people's property, before settling the matter, 
there are some things to think of. First, it must be the public good 
that forces this invasion of private right; it must not be the desire 
of some one who, having an itch to start a newspaper, feels that he 
would prefer The Associated Press service. Second, the practical 
effect of a rule such as was laid down by the Illinois Supreme Court, 
requiring the organization to render service to all applicants, must 
be carefully considered. News is not a commodity of the nature of 
coal or wood. It is incorporeal. It does not pass from seller to 
buyer in the way ordinary commodities do. Although the buyer 
receives it, the seller does not cease to possess it. In order to make 
a news-gathering agency possible, it has been found necessary to 
limit, by stringent rules, the use of the service by the member. 
Thus each member of The Associated Press is prohibited from mak- 
ing any use of the despatches furnished him, other than to publish 
them in his newspaper. If such a restriction were not imposed, any 
member, on receipt of his news service, might at once set up an 
agency of his own and put an end to the general organization. This 
rule, as well as all disciplinary measures, would disappear under 
the plan proposed by the critic of the Atlantic. A buyer might be 
expelled, but to-morrow he could demand readmission. There 
would in practice no longer be members with a right of censorship 
over the management; instead there would be one seller and an 
unlimited number of buyers. Then, indeed, there would be a 
monopoly of the worst sort. And Government censorship, with 
all of its attendant, and long since admitted evils, would follow. 
Under a Republican administration we should have a Republican 

278 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

censor; under a Democratic administration, a Democratic censor. 
And a free press would no longer exist. 

Absolute journalistic inerrancy is not possible. But we are much 
nearer it to-day than ever before. And it is to approximate iner- 
rancy in its despatches that The Associated Press is striving. If 
in its methods of organization, or in its manner of administration, 
it is violating any law, or is making for evil, it should be punished 
or suppressed. If any better method for securing an honest, im- 
partial news service can be devised, by all means let us have it. 
But that the plan proposed would better the situation is clearly 
open to doubt. 

Melville E. Stone. 



In Collier's Weekly for June 6, 19 14, appeared the fol- 
lowing editorial: 

In Justice to the "A. P." 

The officers and members of The Associated Press have been kept 
busy lately repelling attacks upon that organization. In so far as 
they are defending themselves from the charge of wilful distortion 
of the news, we sympathize with them. Six or seven years ago we 
printed a series of articles which dealt with the general subject of 
"tainted news," and from time to time since then we have pointed 
out examples of this insidious practice. During this time not less 
than a score of persons have come to us with alleged examples or" 
tampering with the news on the part of The Associated Press. All 
of these cases we looked into with care and pains, and many of 
the same cases were investigated by other publications and persons. 
We have never found a case that justified us in publishing the details 
or in making any charge of wilful distortion against The Associated 
Press. A very different point is this : The Associated Press gets much 
of its news from official sources, and the news, as given out by head- 
quarters, is apt to be colored the way officials like it to look. It is 
entirely natural for The Associated Press representative at St. 
Petersburg, for example, to keep in close touch with Russian officials, 
for they are the source of nine-tenths of the news which he must 
send out. In less degree, the same is true of Washington. The 
information sent over The Associated Press wires is likely to have 
a slight official bias. But that The Associated Press changes it or 
colors it in the process we do not believe. That the agitators who 
are the most conspicuous assailants of The Associated Press, should 

279 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

confuse these two very different things is characteristic of their 
wobbly cerebration. 

Is There a News Monopoly? 

The Associated Press is also defending itself against the charge of 
being a monopoly. Mr. Will Irwin, for example, says that The 
Associated Press ought to be required to give its services, under 
proper restrictions and conditions, to any newspaper which asks for 
it. To this the President of The Associated Press, Mr. Frank B. 
Noyes of Washington, D. C, replies that 

a competitor has as much right to demand and receive the same news 
service as he would to demand and receive the use of the other paper's 
press, composing room, editors, and reporters. Just as much right and 
no more. And that is absolutely no right. 

This is the way railroad presidents used to talk a few years ago. On 
this point Mr. Irwin is clearly in tune with the times, and it is only a 
matter of time when The Associated Press will have to conform to 
the current beliefs about monopoly. Where a city has only one 
morning paper and where that morning paper, possessing The 
Associated Press franchise, is able to keep the franchise exclusively 
and prevent any other paper from getting it, there arise all the mis- 
chiefs which attend monopoly. Indeed, we think the subjection 
of the agencies for distributing news to the public may go even 
farther. A single newspaper in a city, or two or three newspapers, 
can inflict injustices and discriminations quite as intolerable as the 
worst practices of street-car or public-lighting monopolies. We 
think the time will come when newspapers will be recognized as 
having the qualities of a public utility, and will be subject to inquiry 
and regulation by commissions similar to those which have arisen in 
many States during the past few years to supervise railroad, telephone, 
and lighting corporations. 

MR. STONE'S REPLY 

Mr. Stone "took judicial notice" of these remarks, and 
Collier's of July n contained his reply, as follows: 

Editor, Collier's: 

I have read with interest the editorial upon The Associated Press 
which appeared in your issue of June 6th. While I recognize an 
evident purpose to be just, it seems clear to me that your suggestion, 
that "the information sent over The Associated Press wires is likely 

280 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

to have a slight official bias," lacks force. The despatches of the 
Association are very widely published. If there is the sort of bias 
you intimate, it should be easy to furnish some illustration. Such 
evidence would certainly be more convincing. In truth there is no 
basis for the idea, as can be demonstrated, I am confident, in any 
specific case that may be presented. 

In respect of your other contention, "that The Associated Press 
ought to be required to give its service, under proper restrictions and 
conditions, to any newspaper which asks for it," there are several 
things to say. First, your attempt to find analogy between this 
business and that of a railroad must fail utterly. The railroad is, 
in the very nature of the case, a common carrier. Not only does it 
fall under the proper legal rule which applied to the coach, the cab, 
and the ferry, long before the railroad existed, but it enjoys certain 
peculiar privileges, such as the right of eminent domain, etc., which 
gives the public a distinct claim upon it. On the other hand, The 
Associated Press enjoys no exceptional right of any sort. It is 
simply a voluntary union of a number of gentlemen for the employ- 
ment of a certain staff of news reporters to serve them jointly. 
For its work it derives no advantage from the Government, from 
any State or municipality, from any corporation, or from any person. 
Its service is a purely personal one, and never, except under the long- 
since abolished slave laws, has any Government sought to compel 
personal service, save in cases of voluntarily assumed contracts, 
or of adjudgments for crime. The output of The Associated Press 
is not the news; it is its own story of the news. There can be no 
monopoly in news. At the point of origin, Havana, the destruction 
of the Maine was known by every man, woman, and child. Any 
one could have written a story of it. The Associated Press men did. 
It was their own story. Who shall say that they, or those who 
employed them, were not entitled to its exclusive use? And is this 
not equally true, whether the employer be one man, or ten men, or 
nine hundred men acting in co-operation? 

You say, "Where a city has only one morning paper and where that 
morning paper, possessing The Associated Press franchise, is able to 
keep the franchise exclusively and prevent any other paper from 
getting it, there arise all the mischiefs which attend monopoly." 
To this let me say that there is no such case, nor has there been 
in the life of The Associated Press, of which you speak. If there 
were, Mr. Noyes's remark that "a competitor has as much right to 
demand and receive the same news service as he would to demand 
and receive the use of the other's press, composing-room, editors, and 
reporters," would unanswerably apply. But as to the facts: The 
existing Associated Press began business on September 29, 1900, 
with 612 members publishing daily newspapers in 295 cities and 

281 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

towns. In the thirteen years and nine months which have elapsed 
since that date, 627 new members, publishing daily newspapers in 
434 cities and towns, have been admitted. As you will observe, this 
means an average of about one new member elected each week. 
Meanwhile members have resigned, newspapers have failed or 
ceased publication, so that the 627 elected does not represent an 
increase of that number on the membership roll. The present 
membership is 891. 

As to the exclusive right, my answer is that there is no exclusive 
right. There is what is called a "right of protest," which is simply 
the right of a member to say that the Board of Directors cannot elect a 
new member in his field, but must leave the question of election to the 
membership at large. And even this "right of protest" is held by 
less than one-fourth of the members. No such right has been 
granted to any member in over thirteen years, and, since it requires 
a vote of seven-eighths of the total membership of the Association to 
grant it, none is likely to be granted within your lifetime or mine, 
to say the least. 

Some applicants have failed of election, it is true. But in the great 
majority of such cases they have failed for other reasons, and not 
because of the exercise of any protest right. Since the Association 
is a co-operative one, making no profit, there is no fund out of which 
to provide for the delinquency of one who may be unable to pay for 
the service. And as contracts for leased wires run over a consider- 
able period, the failure of a member to pay his share of the expenses 
may become a serious thing. If The Associated Press were a money- 
making venture, it would be justified in taking the risks which 
merchants are accustomed to reckon on in making credit. 

This is one of the difficulties which would be involved in any 
attempt to compel the organization to give its service to all applicants. 
An increased charge would necessarily be paid by the thrifty, solvent 
members to provide for the improvident or untrustworthy. 

Any one may withdraw from The Associated Press. What holds 
it together? The confidence of the members and of the public in its 
integrity. The only property it has is its good will. Is this a thing 
in which an applicant may claim a legal right to share? 

In the case of the New York Sun, it should be said that the pro- 
prietors of that paper have never sought admission to membership 
in the Association. On February 19, 1897, when the paper was 
under the control of Charles A. Dana and William M. Laffan, there 
appeared in italics at the top of its editorial columns an announce- 
ment that the paper would not join The Associated Press, but would 
collect the news for itself. This policy was pursued until the death 
of both of the men named. And thereafter the present manager 
declined to make application for membership, but, instead, presented 

282 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

a petition to the Attorney-General of the United States asking that 
he institute proceedings against The Associated Press as an unlawful 
organization. This was not an appeal for aid; it was an effort to 
destroy a competitor. For it must be borne in mind that the New 
York Sun has a news-collecting and distributing agency of its own 
and has had such an agency for over twenty years. 

But you say "the time will come when newspapers will be recog- 
nized as having the qualities of a public utility, and will be subject to 
inquiry and regulation by commissions similar to those which have 
risen in many States during the past few years to supervise railroads, 
telephone and lighting corporations." Well, then we shall have 
turned back the clock three hundred years, and John Milton and his 
"Plea for unlicensed printing" were all in vain. The first Amend- 
ment to the Federal Constitution will be accounted a mistake, and 
we shall be face to face with a method of governmental administra- 
tion once delighted in by the Stationers' Company and the Star 
Chamber. 

As long ago as March, 1867, a writer in Harper's Magazine said: 
"The American public are a little superstitious about The Associated 
Press, and the feeling results from that common and natural cause of 
all superstitions — ignorance." That such ignorance exists now, as it 
did then, is undeniably true. But it would be altogether unfair to 
suspect that this lack of knowledge on the part of the public is due 
to any effort by the Association, or its management, to veil in secrecy 
either its scheme of organization, or its method of operation. Any 
one who is anxious, or even willing, to investigate it will find no 
obstacle. Neither the membership nor the management has any 
apology to offer for the work. Instead, it is believed that the 
Association is engaged in a distinctly meritorious endeavor. 

Does The Associated Press receive or distribute to its members all 
of the news of the day? By no means. Nor is it intended that it 
shall. There are news fields which, however important, it is for- 
bidden to enter. These are the fields which, by the proprieties, are 
left for exploration to the enterprise of the individual newspapers. 
What may it do and what may it not do? It may and should report 
the consequential events fairly, or as nearly as is possible for human 
beings to do so. It may not go further. And herein lies in large 
measure the misunderstanding of the well-intentioned public. 

As an illustration: If a "pogrom" occurs in a Russian town, The 
Associated Press should tell dispassionately the story of the event. 
But it is not permitted to even say whether the thing is right or 
wrong. If President Wilson goes to the Capitol and urges a repeal 
of the statue exempting American coastwise vessels from the pay- 
ment of the Panama Canal tolls, and if Senator O'Gorman or Re- 
publican House Leader Mann or Democratic House Leader Under- 

283 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

wood takes issue with President Wilson, The Associated Press 
calmly reports both sides and must give no hint that either side is 
right or wrong. 

But, says some one, this sort of negative work has no value. It 
sees a great wrong and makes no sign of disapproval. It sees a 
movement, for the betterment of mankind, which is of the highest 
moment and does not lend a hand to help the thing along. Let us 
see. There is an underlying belief that the American people are 
capable of self-government. If so, they must needs be able to form 
a judgment. And we conceive it to be of very great importance 
that the people be given the facts, free from the slightest bias, leav- 
ing to them the business of forming their own judgment. Let us 
see what any other method of dealing with the news of the day 
must mean. If a news agency is to present somebody's view of 
the right or wrong of the world's happenings, whose view is it to be? 
And what assurance are we to have that the somebody's view is the 
right view? And if it is the wrong view, what then? 

It was out of all this that there grew a co-operative Associated 
Press. The business of news-gathering in a dominant way was in 
the hands of three men. They were responsible to no one. They 
could send out to the newspapers anything they chose and no one 
could call them to account. A large number of newspaper pro- 
prietors revolted. They felt that, far beyond their own interests 
there was a great public question involved. They set about the 
development of a plan which should ensure an honest, truthful, and 
impartial reporting of events. After deliberation, they concluded 
that the safest way was to organize a co-operative association of 
newspaper proprietors, representing diverse interests and thus put 
the institution under pledge to report the truth, and, to guarantee 
impartiality, the news service was to be subjected to the scrutiny 
and the censorship of the varied views of its membership. 

Thus the business started. It took four years of hard struggle to 
wrest the business from private control; and then it succeeded. The 
co-operative association was accepted by enough publishers to make 
it a success. The very fundamental principle was that it, its method 
of organization, and its news service should be subject to criticism. 
With an appreciation of their responsibility, and a full recognition 
of their duty to the American people, they sought to work out the 
problem before them in the best possible fashion. If they did not 
succeed, then the effort of as patriotic and well-minded set of men 
as this country has ever known is a failure. At one stage of the 
contest they pledged themselves for hundreds of thousands of dollars 
as a guaranty fund to break the chains which, at the moment, bound 
the American press to enslavement by the three men to whom I 
have referred. 

284 



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

I have no thought of saying The Associated Press is perfect. The 
frailties of human nature attach to it. But of this I am certain: 
If, in its form of organization, or its method of operation, it is in 
violation of any law, divine or human, it is the very last institution 
in this country to seek to avoid its responsibility. If any one can 
devise or suggest a better way to do the work it is seeking to do, it will 
be glad to adopt it, or to permit some one else to put it in operation. 
The thing it is striving for is a truthful, unbiased report of the 
world's happenings, under forms that are legal, and not only con- 
formable to statutes, but ethical in the highest degree. 

Sincerely yours, 

Melville E. Stone. 



NEWS-GATHERING 

EXCERPTS FROM AN ARTICLE REGARDING THE 
EARLY HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS 

By Melville E. Stone 

The following excerpts from an article by Mr. 
Stone give an interesting outline of the beginnings of 
journalism, so far as they are known. The remainder 
of the article was devoted to the history of newspaper 
development in America, virtually duplicating mat- 
ter contained in his "Century Magazine" articles 
and various addresses, included in this volume. 

IT IS doubtful if any one can say definitely when and 
where the newspaper business began. Perhaps the 
best guess is that it originated with the Acta Diurna of 
Rome before the Christian era. But this is by no means 
certain. The Chinese claim to have used type and to 
have published newspapers much earlier. And in con- 
firmation of this, copies of the Roman papers, still pre- 
served, contain references to their Chinese contem- 
poraries. 

The Acta Diurna was founded by the Roman Govern- 
ment for the purpose of communicating official, and 
also general, information to their legions in foreign 
countries. The victories they achieved in one field of 
action were reported to their armies elsewhere and served 
to stimulate them to fresh triumphs. A fraction of 
"home news" was added. Some of it was of the "hu- 
man interest story" sort. For instance, on the fourth 
of the Kalends of a certain April, the journal contained 

286 



NEWS-GATHERING 

the following interesting items concerning the Eternal 

City: 

It thundered, and an oak was struck with lightning in that part of 
the Palatine hill called Summa Velia, shortly after noon. 

A fight happened in a tavern at the foot of Banker Street, and in it 
the proprietor of the Hog-in- Armour Inn was dangerously hurt. 

The Aedile Tertinius fined the butchers for selling meat which 
had not been inspected by the market overseers. The fine is to be 
used to build a chapel for the temple of Tellus. 

Since this sheet was written, and but a limited number 
of copies issued, it cannot, after all, be called a newspaper 
in the modern sense. It was rather a news-letter. And 
news-letters were not uncommon for many centuries 
thereafter. Indeed, until the introduction of printing 
in 1450, such were the means of news distribution 
throughout the civilized world. These communications 
were sent from city to city and the privilege of reading 
them was sold for a trifle by the recipients. There were 
not only news-letters, but news-circulars. They were 
written chiefly from the Dutch and German cities, but 
also from London and Paris. 

As a natural result of this business, those who received 
a number of these letters and circulars rewrote their 
contents into a single composite sheet, which they called 
a news-paper. The earliest of these seems to have been 
issued in Venice, and the charge for permission to read 
one was fixed at a gazeiia, a coin of about the value of an 
American cent. From this originated the word "Ga- 
zette," which became the usual title of the newspaper in 
many places. The Venetian papers were issued once a 
month, and their proprietors were forbidden by law to 
print them for more than a century after movable types 
came into use. 

Meanwhile, however, and immediately following the 
development of typography, printed "Gazettes" ap- 
peared in a number of German cities, notably in Nurem- 
berg and Augsburg. 

287 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

The interdiction of the Venetian republic was char- 
acteristic of the general attitude of all of the Governments 
toward printing. The danger of a rapid and widespread 
diffusion of information and the attendant possibility of 
sedition, was promptly noted by those in authority. 
A struggle for a free press began at once and lasted for 
more than three centuries. At first freedom of opinion 
was not permissible. Much less, freedom of speech, or 
of publication of opinion. Punishment for the utterance 
of one's beliefs was practically universal, as witness the 
punishments of Huss and Savonarola, the Spanish 
Inquisition, Luther's attack on the Anabaptists, the 
martyrdoms in England, the burning of Servetus, the 
massacre of the Huguenots, and the ghastly orgies of 
Alva in Holland. In such an hour it was quite logical 
that the printer should be an object of condemnation. 
Everywhere there was a struggle toward the light, but 
everywhere also there was repression and persecution. 
There was always a small remnant of the people who, like 
Socrates, back in Greece, would rather face death than 
conceal their thoughts. But always there was the mas- 
tering hand of Sovereignty, holding as did Jack Cade, in 
Shakespeare's play of Henry the Sixth, that Lord Say 
should be beheaded ten times, since he had caused print- 
ing to be used, and, contrary to the king, his crown and 
dignity had built a paper-mill. 

In 1534 Henry the Eighth forbade any one to print 
an English book without permission from the king's 
licensers. Three years later Parliament gave the Crown 
absolute authority to regulate the press. This, in turn, 
was followed by the establishment of the Stationers' 
Company and the Star Chamber, both of which ex- 
ercised the power of censorship. Queen Elizabeth and 
King James issued proclamations and injunctions against 
the press without limit. Under Cromwell's protectorate 
the work of the Star Chamber was suspended and re- 
strictions were imposed by parliamentary committees, 
but they were no less rigorous. It was then that John 




FREDERICK ROY MARTIN 
Asst. General Manager 

JACKSON S. ELLIOTT 

Chief. News Department 



J. R. YOUATT 
Treasurer 

KENT COOPER 

Chief. Traffic Departmeni 



NEWS-GATHERING 

Milton issued his "Areopagitica: A Plea for Unlicensed 
Printing," which Augustine Birrell has well said was the 
noblest pamphlet in "our English, the language of men 
ever famous in the achievements of liberty." But it 
fell upon deaf ears and, for the time, nothing came of it. 
In this pamphlet Milton said: 

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely accord- 
ing to conscience above all liberties. 

It was in America that a free press was finally estab- 
lished. Only eighteen years after the landing of the 
Pilgrims one Rev. Joseph Glover, a wealthy Puritan 
preacher, left England with type, paper, and press to 
establish the first printing office in what is now the 
territory of the United States. On the way over he 
died at sea, and his widow not long after married Dun- 
ster, the first president of Harvard College. The print- 
ing-press was then set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
and there began a publication business which became 
wonderfully famous in its day. 

All went well until in an unfortunate hour Dunster 
denied the doctrine of infant baptism, was removed from 
the presidency of Harvard College, and lost his printing- 
press. 

Both in England and in her American colonies there 
was a sharp censorship upon the business, and it was 
only five years after Dunster set up his press in Cam- 
bridge that John Milton wrote his immortal plea. 

It was in Boston also, fifty-two years later, that the 
first American newspaper was issued. It lasted but one 
day, and the only copy known to be in existence is now 
in the Public Record Office in London. All that century 
was marked by an unending struggle between the printers 
and the public authorities. There were indictments, 
trials, fines, and jailings without number. Finally, one 
hundred years after the first printing-press arrived in 
Boston, an event of very great importance occurred in 
19 289 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

New York. One John Peter Zenger, printer of the 
new weekly Journal, criticized the British Governor. 
He was arrested and thrown into jail. It was the 
rule of that day, here on American soil as in Eng- 
land, in respect of libel, that "the greater the truth 
the greater the libel." 

Then old Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, fairly 
tottering to the grave, came to the rescue, and in a 
great speech announced as the proper doctrine the dogma 
which became the law of the land, that the truth when 
printed from good motives and for justifiable ends should 
constitute a full defence in any action for libel, and that 
in cases of this sort the jurors should be the judges of 
both the law and the fact. And upon this thesis Hamil- 
ton won. Of Zenger's acquittal Gouverneur Morris said, 
"It was the dawn of that liberty that afterward revolu- 
tionized America." Yet, important as it was, it did not 
settle the question. 

In Massachusetts repressive measures against the press 
continued for nearly another hundred years. 

Three great events occurred in 1811. First, the prac- 
tical settlement for all time on American soil of this 
question of the libel law. There had been repeated 
efforts both before and after the Revolution to break 
away from the English common-law principle and to 
establish the doctrine that the truth of a publication 
could be put in evidence as a defence. But they had not 
been altogether successful. Among those active in the 
matter were John Adams, Harrison Gray Otis, and 
Theophilus Parsons. They had secured the defeat of 
one constitution for the State of Massachusetts because 
it did not contain this provision. 

In 181 1 Chief -Justice Parsons settled the matter by an 
act that alone should have given him a place in the 
journalistic Walhalla. One Abijah Adams, of Boston, 
was brought to trial for the publication of words criticis- 
ing Parsons himself. Then the Chief Justice, true to 
his convictions of right, publicly waived his official 

290 



NEWS-GATHERING 

prerogative and asked the prosecuting officer to permit 
Adams to plead the truth in justification and to intro- 
duce any evidence he might have in support of his plea. 
He went even further and when Abijah Adams was con- 
victed, Parsons publicly urged his pardon. The com- 
mon-law doctrine was then swept away and thence- 
forward in practically every State in the land it became 
a settled principle that the truth when published from 
good motives and for justifiable ends should constitute a 
complete defence. 

The second event which occurred in this interesting 
year of 1811 was the invention by one Frederick Koenig 
of the cylinder press. Until then all printing had been 
done by the old-fashioned hand press and eight hundred 
impressions an hour was the extreme limit of output. 
John Walters, of the London Times, adopted Koenig 's 
invention, applied steam, and in two years quadrupled 
the impressions per hour of his paper. The development 
of the press from Koenig' s initial machine down to this 
hour, when we have cylinder presses capable of printing 
hundreds of thousands of perfected papers an hour, is 
familiar to all. 

The third and even more significant event occurred 
on November 20, 181 1, when there appeared in the 
Columbia Sentinel, of Boston, the following announce- 
ment: 

These News Books, etc., commenced and so satisfactorily conducted 
by Mr. Gilbert, are now transferred to the care of Mr. Samuel Top- 
liff, Jr., a young gentleman of respectability, industry, and informa- 
tion and who will, we doubt not, continue the Marine and General 
News Books with great satisfaction to the patrons and friends of the 
Reading Room. 

This was the beginning of the business of systematic 
news-gathering in all the world. Topliff went out into 
Boston Harbor, met the incoming vessels from Europe, 
gathered all possible information from the ships' captains 
and recorded it in the books of the Coffee House, from 

291 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

which it was copied and printed in the newspapers of the 
day. Later he established correspondents at most of 
the important European cities, and sold their letters to 
the Boston, New York, and Philadelphia journals. Out 
of this work developed The Associated Press. 



STONE AND THE LINOTYPE 

SKETCH OF THE PART PLAYED BY MELVILLE E. 

STONE IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE MER- 

GENTHALER TYPESETTING MACHINE 

IT IS appropriate, even if not widely known, that the 
newspaper world should owe the first exploitation 
of the Mergenthaler Typesetting Machine — better known 
as the Linotpye — to Melville E. Stone. This is not to 
say that it would not have been done without his inter- 
position; but the fact is that it required a man of just 
such experience as his, not only with the practical side 
of the newspaper business, but with the actualities of 
machinery and manufacturing, to recognize at once both 
the merits and the imperfections of a piece of mechanism 
destined to revolutionize one of the basic handicrafts of 
the world. 

William D. Eaton, a man well known in Chicago news- 
paper circles, early in 1885 first called Melville Stone's 
attention to this matter, telling him of a young German 
inventor in Baltimore named Ottmar Mergenthaler, who 
had a machine to set type. Up to this time the under- 
taking had been financed by Messrs. L. G. Hine, Frank 
Hume, and Kurtz Johnston, and certain other men 
resident in Washington, but they had reached the limit 
of their financial capacity, and this thing required large 
backing. Mr. Eaton's description of the invention 
awakened Mr. Stone's curiosity. Proposals of ma- 
chinery to take the place of fingers in typesetting were 
not new, and other devices, some of which afterward 
attained for a time at least a certain degree of success, 

293 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

were under experiment. But this machine, designed to 
cast the type direct from matrices selected by a key- 
board similar to that of a typewriter, was something 
fundamentally different. Mr. Stone went to Baltimore, 
visited Mergenthaler's little shop, and instantly recog- 
nized the great merit of the invention. Returning to 
Chicago, he took initial steps to provide the money 
needed for the large-scale exploitation of the machine. 
He invited a number of friends, all active in the news- 
paper and printing business, to meet him on a certain 
day in Baltimore. There was prompt response, and as 
a result a syndicate was formed, consisting originally of 
Mr. Stone himself; Whitelaw Reid, of the New York 
Tribune; William H. Rand, of the firm of Rand, 
McNally & Co ; Stilson Hut chins, then proprietor of the 
Washington Post (who already had participated in the 
preliminary financing of Mergenthaler) ; William Henry 
Smith, General Manager of the then existing confedera- 
tion of news-gathering associations known as The 
Associated Press, and Victor F. Lawson, Stone's partner 
in the Chicago Daily News. On March 14, 1885, the 
following preliminary agreement was entered into on 
behalf of the various parties in interest, Mr. Hutchins 
representing Mergenthaler and the Washington group of 
the earlier financiers; Mr. Stone the group of associates 
whom he had enlisted in the matter: 

MEMORANDUM of agreement to be entered into between M. E. 
Stone, representing himself, Whitelaw Reid, William Henry- 
Smith, Richard Smith, W. H. Rand, W. N. Haldeman, John C. New, 
and two others to be named and unobjectionable to all parties on 
the one hand; and Stilson Hutchins for himself and not more than 
four associates on the other hand. Stone and associates to purchase 
5,000 shares of National Typographic Company stock at $50 per 
share, which Hutchins is to procure at that price. Hutchins and 
associates to hold and represent 15,100 shares of stock, and to engage 
with M. E. Stone and associates in a contract to place the 20,100 
shares, owned and represented by all the parties included in this 
agreement, in escrow to control the organization in perpetuity. 
The Directors to be chosen when this is done to be made up as 

294 



STONE AND THE LINOTYPE 

follows: Two to represent the holders of the 5,000 shares, two to 
represent Hutchins, and two or more to represent Hutchins's asso- 
ciates holding with him the 15,100 shares — out of a Board of nine, 
and this proportion is to be maintained in a larger or smaller Board 
and the same proportion is to be maintained in the Board of Directors 
during the life of the contract in escrow, indicated above. 

It is further to be agreed that while Hutchins is securing the 5,000 
shares of stock, Stone for himself and his associates to select a com- 
petent attorney to examine patents and organization of the com- 
pany and that Stone and associates are to be allowed to put the 
present machine with automatic justifier to any reasonable and trying 
test, and to be allowed to take ten or more columns, if required, 
of the product and use the same in any paper or job office desired, 
but no publicity to be made thereof. 

In case tests and legal examination are satisfactory, which are to be 
completed in 20 days from date, the money to pay for 5,000 shares 
is to be raised and deposited within ten days thereafter. 

That done, Mr. Hutchins is to capitalize his contract with the 
company at $200,000, and Stone and his associates are to be given 
as further consideration for purchasing 5,000 shares of stock at $50 
per share a one-third interest in said $200,000 of stock, to be divided 
as Stone and his associates may agree. 

It is to be agreed that Stone and his 7 or 9 associates being engaged 
in the conduct of printing establishments shall have machines for their 
own use at one-half the rate of expense charged the general public. 

(Signed) Stilson Hutchins, 

(for himself and his associates.) 

Melville E. Stone, 

(for himself and his associates.) 

The original syndicate headed by Mr. Stone was 
somewhat modified, Messrs. Richard Smith, Haldeman, 
and New dropping out and being replaced by others; 
the new organization was completed and took control, 
and Melville Stone became the first chairman of the 
Board of Directors. It was William H. Rand who gave 
the machine the name, "Line-o'-type," which, com- 
pressed into "Linotype," is now almost a household 
world the world over. The first twelve machines were 
placed, at Stone's suggestion, in the office of the New 
York Tribune; the second twelve in that of his own 
paper, the Chicago Daily News. 

295 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

As for Ottmar Mergenthaler, in the fashion character- 
istic of inventors, he never was satisfied with the ma- 
chine; always there arose in his mind ideas of improve- 
ments and changes that ought to be made. If he had 
been left to himself, it is doubtful if ever a fully per- 
fected machine would have reached the market. It be- 
came necessary to divorce him from the manufacturing 
and marketing side of the business and to establish him 
in a laboratory where he could go on inventing and 
experimenting to his heart's content. Financially, he 
was treated handsomely. 

The Linotype has been enormously remunerative, as 
it promised and deserved to be. But the stream of 
profit did not flow to Melville Stone. When in the 
spring of 1888 he retired from the newspaper business he 
sold to Victor Lawson not only his whole interest in the 
Chicago Daily News, but also his holdings in the Mergen- 
thaler Linotype. 



VERSE BY AND ABOUT M. E. S. 

THE intimate friends of Melville Stone know him 
as a man of versatility, a public speaker of ex- 
ceptional ability, a writer of force and originality, but 
not all even of these know that he has been all his life 
a writer of verse. He does not regard himself as a poet, 
but he does from time to time yield to an uncontrollable 
impulse to say his say in verse. Much of it has been 
written for special occasions; the famous Fellowship 
Club of Chicago, in which he was a guiding spirit, knew 
him as its Poet Laureate. 

Typical of the verse he wrote for the club was one in 
tribute to Joe Jefferson, for the occasion of a breakfast 
which was given by the Fellowship Club in honor of 
Jefferson and his "All Star Cast" on the morning of 
Friday, May 15, 1896: 

A TOAST TO THE MASTER 
Air: "I am dying, Egypt, dying" 

Here's your health, dear Rip Van Winkle, 

Long and prosperous be your day; 
Take your seat beside the fireplace, 

In the old familiar way. 
Fill your glass and tell your story, 

As you've done these many years; 
While the friends who sit around you 

Answer you in smiles and tears. 
When again you climb the mountain, 

And have reached old Pisgah's crest, 
Peaceful be your final slumber, 

Calm and dreamless be your rest. 
Till upon that other morning, 

Wakened by the angel's song, 
You shall join the band of players 

Who compose th' immortal throng. 
297 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

ON the evening of February 14, 1898, the Fellow- 
ship Club held a memorial service upon the death 
of Moses P. Handy, the well-known journalist, who had 
been a member of the club. For that occasion Mr. 
Stone wrote the following, which was sung to the air, 
1 ' Bendemeer's Stream ' ' : 

There's a valley that lies on the Chesapeake shore, 

In the far-away Southland, 'neath skies that are bright, 
And that valley is sacred as never before, 

For it holds in its keeping a loved one to-night. 
He sleeps in the peace of that sanctified ground, 

And angels keep ward o'er his grass-covered bed. 
His slumber is broken by never a sound, 

For he sleeps his last sleep — our beloved is dead! 

As we peer through the mists that envelop our eyes, 

And we wonder what God in His wisdom may mean; 
Like the sunbeams of morning, sweet memories rise, 

To dispel the gray clouds that bedarken the scene; 
And zephyrs waft incense of love o'er the wave, 

To hallow that spot on the Chesapeake shore; 
A spirit undying comes forth from the grave — 

Our beloved but sleepeth — he lives evermore! 



During the Spanish-American War an incident of 
battle inspired Stone to this in dialect: 

MODOC JIM 

His name wuz Modoc Jim, an' ez to him, 

He wuz a nigger trooper from the West. 
In looks, he wa'nt a bute, but he could shoot, — 

He wore a practice medal on his breast. 

The fellows said he'd steal, and didn't feel 

Quite comfortable when he wuz 'round, 
He had a hang-dog look, an' no one took 

Much pains to please the sneaking, treach'rous hound. 

He had a nigger wife, whose poor, lone life 

He made as miserable as he could. 
She lived outside a post, out on the coast 

An' never had enough uv clothes or food. 
298 



VERSE BY AND ABOUT M. E. S 

Once't in an Injun fight, out on the right 

Alone he held the firing line all day. 
It wuz a plucky stand, and the command 

Couldn't kick, when he wuz given a sergeantcy. 

An' then there came a call, an' one an' all 

Went down to Cuba, 'gainst the Spanish Don. 

We marched along the way from Siboney 
In mud an' rain, an' under broiling sun. 

When in the blinding storm 'twuz hard to form, 

An' we wuz going sorto 'zye please, 
Old Jim struck out ahead, an' only said 

He hated fighting where we wuz short of trees. 

While he wuz taking aim a Mauser came 
An' ripped an ugly hole acrost his breast. 

An' when old Modoc dropped, the doctor stopped, 
An' 'lowed 'twuz time that wound wuz dressed. 

But Jim said, "No, not much." He made a crutch 
Of a dead man's gun an' stood an' just fought on, 

An' pushed out to the front an' done his stunt 
'Til 'nother ball came an' his leg wuz gone. 

He dumped down on the ground, but nary sound 
Of grief or sorrow passed his quivering lip. 

Tho' mighty near to death, an' short of breath, 
He laughed an' only said he hoped we'd whip. 

When in the hospital, a Red Cross pal 
Asked if he'd like to cable home, he said: 

"There ain't so much to tell, just say 'am well,'" 
An' then he kinder fainted, — an' wuz dead. 



AND verse, of a sort, has been written about Melville 
**> Stone. Here is one of the best of these efforts — ■ 
I have been unable to identify the author: 

WORKING FOR MELVILLE E. STONE 

The men who work for Melville Stone, of The Associated Press, 
Are nearly all the people who are doing things, I guess; 
To be frank with you, it's only fair to state, as he would say, 
That, seeing as how it is like this, we have to toil away 
To gather up the news he wants and send it to his mill; 
The other works may cease to go, but his keep running still; 
He never gives us any rest, he keeps the wires hot, 
And you can't tell by his countenance the kind of cards he's got. 

299 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

I met a man in Russia who possessed a nervous air, 

He'd a bunch of guards around him who were very long on hair, 

And I asked the little fellow who appeared to boss the crowd 

What his name was and what reason he could give for looking proud; 

He replied with pleasing candor, as a bomb went past his ear: 

"At the present time I'm holding down the job of ruler here, 

But aside from merely sitting on a very shaky throne 

I am always pretty busy making news for Melville Stone." 

Once when I was in Morocco — it is needless to say when — 

I engaged in conversation with some petticoated men; 

One of them they call the Sultan — he was looking rather blue — 

And I casually asked him what a sultan had to do; 

He was thoughtful for a moment, and he looked me up and down, 

While a band of dusky rebels could be seen approaching town; 

Then he pulled his skirt around him and he answered with a groan: 

"I am generally busy making news for M. E. Stone." 

So it was where e'er I traveled, kaisers, kings and dukes and earls, 
Fortune-hunting counts and barons, rich and pretty Yankee girls, 
Men of every race and station, men of all the creeds and hues, 
All had one great occupation, which, in short, was — making news! 
When they launched a ship at Belfast, when they sailed a race at Kiel, 
When the lords frowned with disfavor, hearing Ireland's appeal, 
When the millionaire, while scorching, through some Frenchman's fence 

was thrown, 
They were all engaged in making bits of news for Brother Stone. 

To be frank with you it's only fair to state that Lawson, Noyes, 
Ridder, Taylor, Howell, Nelson, Knapp and Barr and all the boys, 
Whether they're in San Francisco, New Orleans or Syracuse, 
Have to work for Stone, supplying his demands for daily news. 
Teddy, Taft and Rockefeller, Landis, Harriman and Fish, 
Having knowledge of his diet, heap their dainties on his dish: 
Seeing as it is like this, we may as well at once confess 
That we all work hard for Melville, of The Associated Press. 



DURING the Republican National Convention at 
Chicago in 1908 the procession of old printers, 
dilapidated ex-reporters and editors, and other sorts of 
peripatetics, all in more or less derelict condition, 
who turned up to remind Melville Stone of their former 
glory as sometime employees of his, and to claim largess 
on that account, became unusually large. It was always 
a feature of the doings on important occasions when 

300 



VERSE BY AND ABOUT M. E. S. 

Stone was in command; this time — probably because it 
was at Chicago, where he always finds a host of old 
acquaintances — it took on the aspect of a plague. That 
explains why one of The Associated Press staff felt 
impelled to register the state of affairs in verse : 

THE IMMORTALS 

Heroes of Balaklava, of Waterloo and Nile — 

There used to be a lot of 'em; they lasted quite a while. 

But one by one they dropped away, they died from time to time — 

Some died of queer diseases, and some were hanged for crime, 

Some died of drinking too much rum, some died at home in bed, 

The point that I now seek to make is — most of 'em are dead. 

The men who fit at Bunker Hill, at Yorktown and at sea, 

Are sleeping now their last long sleep, from earthly sorrows free. 

But there's a noble band of men who live on, year on year; 
You meet them everywhere you go — they seem to live on beer. 
You meet them in Chicago, at sea and on the land, 
In Timbuctoo and Hong Kong, at The Hague and on the Strand, 
They never die, they never work, they turn up night and day. 
You speak to them with cuss-words, but they will not go away, 
They seldom wash, they never shave; they have one shirt — or none; 
The tie by which they cling to life — they "used to work for Stone." 



APPENDIX 

A. Directory of Officers and Directors: 

Illinois Corporation. 
New York Corporation. 

B. List of Officers and Directors and of 

Members of The Associated Press, 1917- 
1918. 

C. Certificate of Incorporation, By-Laws 

and Resolutions of the Board of Di- 
rectors of The Associated Press. 

D. Index. 




HAROLD MARTIN 
Eastern Division 

L. C. PROBERT 

Southern Division 



PAUL COWLES 

Central Division 

EDGAR T. CUTTER 
Western Division 



Division Superintendents of The Associated Press 



DIRECTORY OF OFFICERS AND 
DIRECTORS OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

{Incorporated in Illinois) 

i 892-1 900 

BARR, ALBERT, J., Pittsburg Post— Director, 1893-1900. 

BELO, A. H., Dallas & Galveston News — Second Vice-President, 1894. 

BOWLES, SAMUEL, Springfield Republican— -First Vice-President, 

May-Sept., 1900. 
BUTLER, E. H., Buffalo News— Director, 1894. 
CALL, EDWARD P., New York Evening Post— Director, May-Sept., 

1900. 
CARVALHO, S. S., New York World— Director and Member Executive 

Committee, 1 893-1 895. 
COLLIER, WILLIAM A., Memphis Appeal-Avalanche— Director, 1892- 

1893. 
deYOUNG, M. H., San Francisco Chronicle — Director, 1892-1900. 
DIEHL, CHARLES S. — Assistant General Manager and Assistant 

Secretary, 1893-1900; General Manager, May-Sept., 1900. 
DRISCOLL, FREDERICK, St. Paul Pioneer-Press— Director and 

Member Executive Committee, 1 892-1 899. 
GRASTY, CHARLES H., Baltimore News— Director, May-Sept., 1900. 
HESING, WASHINGTON, Chicago Illinois Staats-Zeitung— Director, 

1 892-1 893. 
HOWELL, CLARK, Atlanta Constitution — Director and Member 

Executive Committee, 1 899-1 900. 
JENKINS, ARTHUR, Syracuse Herald— Director, 1 898-1 900. 
KNAPP, CHARLES W., St. Louis Republic— Secretary pro tern., 1893; 

Director and Member Executive Committee, 1 892-1900; President, 

1900. 
LAWSON, VICTOR F., Chicago Record and Chicago Daily News— 

President, 1 894-1 900; Director and Member Executive Committee, 

1 892-1 900. 
McLEAN, W. L., Philadelphia Bulletin — Director and Member Execu- 
tive Committee, 1 899-1 900. 
McLEAN, JOHN R., Cincinnati Enquirer — Second Vice-President, 1895. 
McMICHAEL, CLAYTON, Philadelphia North American— Director, 

1 894-1 898; Member Executive Committee, 1 896-1 898. 
20 305 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

MARKBREIT, L., Cincinnati Volksblatt— Director, 1 896-1900. 
NIXON, WILLIAM PENN, Chicago Inter-Ocean— President, 1892 and 

1893. 
NORRIS, JOHN, New York World— Director, 1 896-1 900; Member 

Executive Committee, 1 899-1900. 
NOYES, FRANK B., Washington Star— Director and Member Execu- 
tive Committee, 1 894-1900. 
O'MEARA, STEPHEN, Boston Journal— Director, 1 896-1 899; First 

Vice-President, 1900. 
OTIS, GENERAL HARRISON GRAY, Los Angeles Times— Second. 

Vice-President, 1900. 
PERDUE, EUGENE H., Cleveland Leader and News-Herald— Director, 

1 892-1 896. 
RAPIER, THOMAS G., New Orleans Picayune— Director, 1895-1897; 

Second Vice-President, 1 898-1 899. 
ROSEWATER, EDWARD, Omaha Bee— Director, May-Sept., 1900. 
SCHNEIDER, GEORGE— Treasurer, 1 893-1 896. 
SCRIPPS, JAMES E., Detroit Tribune and Evening News— Director, 

1 892-1 896. 
SMITH, DELA VAN— Secretary, 1 892-1 893. 

SMITH, WILLIAM HENRY— Treasurer, 1 892-1 893; General Man- 
ager, 1892. 
SMITH, HOKE, Atlanta Journal — Second Vice-President, 1896 and 

1897. 
STONE, MELVILLE E.— Secretary, 1 894-1900; General Manager, 

1 893-1 900. 
SWAYNE, GENERAL WAGER— Associate General Counsel, 1895- 

1900. 
TAFT, CHARLES P., Cincinnati Times-Star— First Vice-President, 

1 892-1 893. 
THOMPSON, GEORGE, St. Paul Dispatch— Director, May-Sept., 

1900. 
WALSH, JOHN R.— Treasurer, 1 897-1900. 
WHITE, HORACE, New York Evening Post— First Vice-President, 

1 894-1 899. 
WILSON, JOHN P.— General Counsel, 1 892-1900. 



DIRECTORY OF OFFICERS AND 
DIRECTORS OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

{New York Corporation) 

1900-1918 

ADLER, E. P., Davenport Times — Second Vice-President, 1917-1918. 
ANTHONY, B. H., New Bedford Standard— Second Vice-President, 

1915. 
BAKER, E. H., Cleveland Plain Dealer — Director, 1917-1919. 
*BARR, ALBERT J., Pittsburg Post— Director, 1900-1912. 

* BELO, A. H., Dallas News — Charter Director, 1900. 

BOOTH, RALPH H., Muskegon Chronicle— -First Vice-President, 1917- 
1918. 
♦BOWLES, SAMUEL, Springfield Republican— -Director, 1912-1915. 

BRICKELL, W. D., Columbus Dispatch— Director, 1903. 

CABANISS, H. H., Augusta Chronicle — Second Vice-President, 1905. 

CLARK, CHARLES HOPKINS, Hartford Courant— First Vice- 
President, 1 907-1 909; Director since 1910. 

COWLES, W. H., Spokane Spokesman-Review — Director since 191 1. 

* de YOUNG, M. H., San Francisco Chronicle — Director, 1900-1909. 

* DIEHL, CHARLES S— Assistant General Manager and Assistant 

Secretary, 1 900-191 1. 
DOW, W. H., Portland Express & Advertiser — Second Vice-President, 

1916. 
ESTILL, J. H., Savannah News — Second Vice-President, 1904. 
FAHEY, J. H., Boston Traveler — Second Vice-President, 1909. 

* GRASTY, CHARLES H., Baltimore News, Baltimore Sun, St. Paul 

Dispatch — Director, 1900-1909; First Vice-President, 1914. 
HASKELL, E. B., Boston Herald— First Vice-President, 1903. 
HEMPHILL, J. C, Charleston News & Courier— -First Vice-President, 

1909. 
HILL, CRAWFORD, Denver Republican— Second Vice-President, 

1912 and 1913. 
♦HOWELL, CLARK, Atlanta Constitution— -First Vice-President, 1900; 

Director since 1901. 
JOHNSTON, R. M., Houston Post— First Vice-President, 19 10 and 

191 1 ; Director since 19 1 4. 

* Served also under Illinois Corporation. 
307 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

JENNINGS, FREDERIC B.— General Counsel since incorporation. 

* KNAPP, CHARLES W., St. Louis Republic— Director and Member 

Executive Committee, 1 900-1 91 6. 
LANGTRY, ALBERT P., Springfield Union— Director, 1903-1905. 

* LAWSON, VICTOR F., Chicago Daily News— Director and Member 

Executive Committee since incorporation. 

MacLENNAN, FRANK P., Topeka State Journal— Second Vice- 
President, 1910 and 191 1. 

McCLATCHY, V. S., Sacramento Bee — Director since 1910. 

McKELWAY, ST. CLAIR, Brooklyn Eagle— Charter Director, 1900. 

* McLEAN, W. L., Philadelphia Bulletin — Director since incorporation; 

Member Executive Committee since 19 10. 
MARTIN, FREDERICK ROY, Providence Journal—Director, 1912; 

resigned to become Assistant General Manager and Assistant 

Secretary. Now in office. 
MOORE, D. D., New Orleans Times-Picayune — Second Vice-President, 

1 914; First Vice-President, 191 5. 
MORGAN, W. Y., Hutchinson News — Director, 1914-1916. 
NELSON, W. R., Kansas City Star and Times— Second Vice-President, 

1901 and 1902; Director, 1904-1914. 

* NO YES, FRANK B., Washington Star— President, Director and Mem- 

ber Executive Committee since incorporation. 

OCHS, ADOLPH S., New York Times— Charter Director and Treas- 
urer, 1900; Director and Member Executive Committee since 
1905. 
♦O'MEARA, STEPHEN, Boston Journal— Charter Director, 1900, 
and Director till 1903. 

PATTERSON, THOMAS M., Denver Rocky Mountain News—Second 
Vice-President, 1900. 

PULITZER, JOSEPH, JR., St. Louis Post-Dispatch— -First Vice- 
President, 191 6. 

* RAPIER, THOMAS G., New Orleans Picayune — Director, 1900- 

I9I3- 

RATHOM, JOHN R., Providence Journal — Director since 191 7. 

REID, WHITELAW, New York Tribune— Director, 1 900-1904; Mem- 
ber Executive Committee, 1 901-1904. 

RHODES, R. N., Birmingham News — Second Vice-President, 1905- 
1908. 

RIDDER, HERMAN, New York Staats-Zeitung— Director, 1900- 
1915; Treasurer, 1907-1909. 

ROOK, CHARLES A., Pittsburg Dispatch— Director and Member 
Executive Committee since 191 2. 

SCOTT, HARVEY W., Portland Oregonian— Director, 1900-19 10. 

SEITZ, DON C, New York World— Director and Member Executive 
Committee, 1 900-1 901. 

SNYDER, VALENTINE P.— Treasurer, 1900-1906. 

* STONE, MELVILLE E— Secretary and General Manager since in- 

corporation. 

* TAFT, CHARLES P., Cincinnati Times- Star— Director, 1 900-1 902. 

* Served also under Illinois Corporation. 
308 



APPENDIX 

TAYLOR, GENERAL CHARLES H., Boston Globe— First Vice- 
President, 1904 and 1905 and 1912 and 1913; Director and Mem- 
ber Executive Committee, 1906-1911. 

* THOMPSON, GEORGE, St. Paul Dispatch— Director, 1 900-1 907. 
TOWN, D. E., Louisville Herald — Director since 191 5. 
VILLARD, OSWALD GARRISON, New York Evening Post— Director 

and Member Executive Committee since 1916. 
WEISS, A. C, Duluth Herald— Director since 1916. 

* WHITE, HORACE, New York Evening Post— First Vice-President, 

1901-1902. 

* WILSON, JOHN P. — Associate General Counsel, 1900-1902. 
YOUATT, J. R. — Auditor, 1900-1909, when elected Treasurer. Now 

in office. 

* Served also under Illinois Corporation. 



B 

OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS OF THE 
ASSOCIATED PRESS 

{New York Corporation) 

1917-1918 

President, Frank B. Noyes, Washington Star. 

First Vice-President, Ralph H. Booth, Muskegon Chronicle. 

Second Vice-President, E. P. Adler, Davenport Times. 

Secretary, Melville E. Stone, New York. 

Assistant Secretary, Frederick Roy Martin, New York. 

Treasurer, J. R. Youatt, New York. 

Term Expires igi8 — 

W. H. Cowles, Spokane Spokesman-Review. 

* Victor F. Lawson, Chicago Daily News. 
D. E. Town, Louisville Herald. 

R. M. Johnston, Houston Post. 

* Oswald Garrison Villard, New York Evening Post. 

Term Expires iqiq — 

* Charles A. Rook, Pittsburg Dispatch. 

* Charles Hopkins Clark, Hartford Courant, 
Clark Howell, Atlanta Constitution. 

V. S. McClatchy, Sacramento Bee. 
Elbert H. Baker, Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

Term Expires IQ20 — 

* Frank B. Noyes, Washington Star. 
*W. L. McLean, Philadelphia Bulletin. 
*Adolph S. Ochs, New York Times. 

A. C. Weiss, Duluth Herald. 

John R. Rathom, Providence Journal. 

* Member of the Executive Committee. 



EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT 

51 Chambers Street, New York 

General Manager — Melville E. Stone. 
Assistant General Manager — Frederick Roy Martin. 
Chief of News Department — Jackson S. Elliott. 
Chief of Traffic Department — Kent Cooper. 

DIVISION SUPERINTENDENTS 

Eastern Division — Headquarters at New York; comprising the States 
of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
District of Columbia, Delaware and West Virginia. Harold Martin, 
Acting Superintendent. 

Central Division — Headquarters at Chicago; comprising the States of 
Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Minne- 
sota, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. Paul 
Cowles, Superintendent. 

Southern Division — Headquarters at Washington; comprising the States 
of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 
Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, 
Oklahoma and Kentucky. L. C. Probert, Superintendent, and 
Chief of the Washington Bureau. 

Western Division — Headquarters at San Francisco; comprising the 
States of California, Wyoming, Oregon, Colorado, Montana, Wash- 
ington, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Edgar 
T. Cutter, Superintendent. 



MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

(List Corrected to March 15, 19 18) 

Evening Papers — Italics. * Sunday morning only. 

Morning Papers — Roman. f Spanish. 

1 Evening and Sunday morning only. j German. 

§ French. 

ALABAMA 

E. W. Barrett, Birmingham Age-Herald. v ' 

Victor H. Hanson, Birmingham News. 

Charles E. Meeks, Gadsden Times-News. 

J. E. Pierce, Huntsville Times. 

Albert P. Bush, Mobile News-Item. 

Frederick I. Thompson, Mobile Register. 

W. T. Sheehan, Montgomery Advertiser. 

Horace Hood, Montgomery Journal. 
f F. T. Raiford, Selma Times. 

M. S. Hansbrough, Sheffield Tri-Cities Daily. 
% Edward Doty, Tuscaloosa News & Times-Gazette. 

ALASKA 

Charles E. Herron, Anchorage Times. 
Harry G. Steel, Cordova Times. 
J. H. Caskey, Fairbanks Citizen. 
Edward C. Russell, Juneau Dispatch. 
John W. Troy, Juneau Empire. 
George S. Maynard, Nome Daily Nugget. 
Harry V. Hoben, Seward Gateway. 

ARIZONA 

Cullen A. Cain, Bisbee Review. 

James Logie, Douglas Dispatch. 

George H. Kelly, Douglas International. 

J. B. Wilmeth, Flagstaff Northern Arizona Leader. 

C. E. Hogue, Globe Arizona Record. 

Ernest Douglas, Jerome News. 

L. C. Branson, Jerome Sun. 

Cleve W. Van Dyke, Miami Silver Belt. 

R. L. O'Neill, Nogales Herald. 

312 



APPENDIX 

C. H. Akers, Phoenix Gazette. 
D wight B. Heard, Phoenix Republican. 
J. W. Milnes, Prescott Journal-Miner. 
Frank H. Hitchcock, Tucson Citizen. 
Clifton Mathews, Tucson Arizona Star. 
J. H. Westover, Yuma Sun. 

ARKANSAS 

V. G. Richardson, Batesville Record. 

W. E. Decker, Fort Smith Southwest American. 

John F. D. Aue, Fort Smith Times-Record. 

Charles M. Young, Helena World. 

John A. Riggs, Hot Springs New Era. 

J. G. Higgins, Hot Springs Sentinel-Record. 

W. O. Troutt, Jonesboro Sun. 

Elmer E. Clarke, Little Rock Democrat. 

J. N. Heiskell, Little Rock Gazette. 

P. H. Van Dyke, Newport Independent. 

E. W. Freeman, Pine Bluff Commercial. 
George H. Adams, Pine Bluff Graphic. 
James L. Wadley, Texarkana Texarkanian. 

CALIFORNIA 

Alfred Harrell, Bakersfield Californian. 
A. W. Mason, Bakersfield Echo. 
Bert Perrin, Calexico Chronicle, 
V. C. Richards, Chico Record. 
A. B. Shaw, Coalinga Record. 
Robert W. Weeks, El Centro Press. 
Otis B. Tout, El Centro Progress. 

F. W. Georgeson, Eureka Humboldt Standard. 
J. H. Crothers, Eureka Times. 

M. E. Perry, Fort Bragg Chronicle. 

Chase S. Osborn, Jr., Fresno Herald. 

Chester H. Rowell, Fresno Republican. 

W. F. Prisk, Grass Valley Union. 

F. V. Dewey, Jr., Hanford Journal. 

M. F. Ihmsen, Los Angeles Examiner. 

Edwin T. Earl, Los Angeles Express. 

Harry Chandler, Los Angeles Times. 

E. F. Forbes, Marysville Appeal. 

Corwin Radcliffe, Merced Sun. 

T. C. Hocking, Modesto Herald. 

W. C. Brown, Monterey Cypress & American. 

J. R. Knowland, Oakland Tribune. 

George C. Mansfield, Oroville Register. 

George W. Stewart, Porterville Messenger. 

Leslie McAuliff, Porterville Recorder. 

Ferd Hurst, Redding Courier- Free Press. 

H. L. Moody, Redding Searchlight. 

313 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

F, K. Arthur, Redlands Review. 

J. R. Gabbert, Riverside Enterprise. 

V. S. McClatchy, Sacramento Bee. 

L. E. Bontz, Sacramento Union. 

P. P. Parker, Salinas Journal. 

R. C. Harbison, San Bernardino Sun. 

Read G. Dilworth, San Diego Tribune. 

James MacMullen, San Diego Union. 

R. A. Crothers, San Francisco Bulletin. 

F. W. Kellogg, San Francisco Call & Post. 

M. H. de Young, San Francisco Chronicle. 

William R. Hearst, San Francisco Examiner. 

Jay O. Hayes, San Jos6 Mercury Herald. 

Thomas M. Storke, Santa Barbara News. 

R. G. Fernald, Santa Barbara Press. 

C. W. Waldron, Santa Cruz Sentinel. 

A. A. Taylor, Santa Cruz Surf. 

Ernest L. Finley, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat. 

J. L. Phelps, Stockton Independent. 

M. J. Nunan, Stockton Record. 

John A. Rollins, Tulare Advance. 

Charles A. Whitmore, Visalia Delta. 

E. H. Haack, Watsonville Register. 

COLORADO 

L. C. Paddock, Boulder Camera. 

A. A. Parkhurst, Boulder News-Herald. 

Clarence P. Dodge, Colorado Springs Gazette. 

C. C. Hamlin, Colorado Springs Telegraph. 

William A. Kyner, Cripple Creek Times-Record. 
% F. G. Bonfils, Denver Post. 

Kent Shaffer, Denver Rocky Mountain News. 

Samuel S. Sherman, Denver Times. 

Rod S. Day, Durango Democrat. 

George C. McCormick, Fort Collins Express. 

R« B. Spencer, Fort Morgan Times. 

J. A. Barclay, Grand Junction News. 

Walter Walker, Grand Junction Sentinel. 

Charles Hansen, Greeley Tribune-Republican. 

Donald C. McCreery, Greeley Tribune-Republican. 

Henry C. Butler, Leadville Herald-Democrat. 

I. N. Stevens, Pueblo Chieftain. 

John F. Vail, Pueblo Star-Journal. 

J. C. Scott, Sterling Advocate. 
1 Jesse G. Northcutt, Trinidad Chronicle-News. 

CONNECTICUT 

J. M. Emerson, Ansonia Sentinel. 
Floyd Tucker, Bridgeport Times. 

3*4 



APPENDIX 

George C. Waldo, Jr., Bridgeport Standard-American. 
Archibald McNeil, Jr., Bridgeport Telegram. 
Arthur S. Barnes, Bristol Press. 
George W. Flint, Danbury News. 
Charles Hopkins Clark, Hartford Courant. 

* William L. Linke, Hartford Globe. 
W. O. Burr, Hartford Times. 

E. E. Smith, Meriden Record. 

Mrs. Matilda Vance, New Britain Herald. 
J. B. Carrington, New Haven Journal and Courier. 
% J. D. Jackson, New Haven Register. 
William A. Hendrick, New Haven Times-Leader. 
Theodore Bodenwein, New London Day. 
Julian D. Moran, New London Telegraph. 
William H. Oat, Norwich Bulletin. 

F. H. Pullen, Norwich Record. 

Mrs. Emma L. Golden, South Norwalk Sentinel. 
Thomas W. Bryant, Torrington Register. 
A. R. Kimball, Waterbury American. 
William J. Pape, Waterbury Republican. 

CUBA 

t Nicholas Rivero, Jr., Havana Diario de la Marina. 
t Nicholas Rivero, Havana Diario de la Marina, 
f Manuel Maria Coronado, Havana Discusion. 
t Rafael R. Govin, Havana Mundo. 

George M. Bradt, Havana Post. 
t Eduardo Abril Amores, Santiago Diario de Cuba. 

DELAWARE 

Joseph Bancroft, Wilmington Every Evening. 
Edgar L. Haynes, Wilmington News. 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 

Edward McLean, Washington Post. 
Frank B. Noyes, Washington Star. 

* Rudolph Kauffmann, Washington Sunday Star. 

FLORIDA 

Earl J. Weaver, Arcadia News. 

D. O. Batchelor, Clearwater Sun. 

T. E. Fitzgerald, Daytona Hotel News. 

Charles S. Harris, Daytona News. 

Chris O. Codrington, DeLand News. 

Henry Ford, Fort Myers Press. 

W. M. -Pepper, Gainesville Sun. 

W. R. Carter, Jacksonville Florida Metropolis. 

Willis M. Ball, Jacksonville Times-Union. 

315 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Marcy B. Darnell, Key West Citizen. 

H. Fred Smith, Key West Journal. 

M. F. Hetherington, Lakeland Telegram. 

Frank B. Shutts, Miami Herald. 

S. B. Dean, Miami Metropolis. 

R. R. Carroll, Ocala Star. 

R. B. Brossier, Orlando Reporter-Star. 

W. M. Glenn, Orlando Sentinel. 

Harry R. Cook, Pensacola Journal. 

Percy S. Hayes, Pensacola News. 

H. L. Brown, St. Augustine Record. 

L. C. Brown, St. Petersburg Independent. 

W. L. Straub, St. Petersburg Times. 

M. A. Smith, Tallahassee Democrat. 

W. F. Stovall, Tampa Tribune. 

D. B. McKay, Tampa Times. 

L. L. Lucas, Tarpon Springs Leader. 

J. L. Earman, West Palm Beach Post. 



GEORGIA 

H. M. Mcintosh, Albany Herald. 

H. J. Rowe, Athens Banner. 

Eugene W. Carroll, Athens Herald. 

Clark Howell, Atlanta Constitution. 
^[ John S. Cohen, Atlanta Journal. 

Thomas W. Loyless, Augusta Chronicle. 
T[ Bowdre Phinizy, Augusta Herald. 

L. P. Artman, Brunswick Banner. 

C. H. Leavy, Brunswick News. 

B. S. Miller, Columbus Enquirer-Sun. 
Tf R. W. Page, Columbus Ledger. 

Charles E. Brown, Cordele Dispatch. 
R. L. McKenney, Macon News. 
W. T. Anderson, Macon Telegraph. 

C. B. Allen, Moultrie Observer. 
Royal Daniel, Quitman Free Press. 

J. Lindsay Johnson, Jr., Rome Tribune-Herald. 

F. G. Bell, Savannah Morning News. 

Pleasant A. Stovall, Savannah Press. 

M. M. Cooper, Thomasville Times-Enterprise. 

E. L. Turner, Valdosta Times. 

L. V. Williams, Waycross Journal-Herald. 



HAWAII 

J. W. Russell, Hilo Post-Herald. 
H. B. Mariner, Hilo Tribune. 

C. S. Crane, Honolulu Pacific Commercial-Advertiser. 
W. R. Farrington, Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 

316 



APPENDIX 

IDAHO 

Calvin Cobb, Boise Statesman. 
G. R. Scott, Coeur d'Alene Press. 
C. C. Wilson, Idaho Falls Post. 
A. H. Alford, Lewiston Tribune. 
L. T. Parsons, Moscow Star-Mirror. 
William Wallin, Pocatello Tribune. 
Harry L. Day, Wallace Press-Times. 

ILLINOIS 

Edward E. Campbell, Alton Times. 

Albert M. Snook, Aurora Beacon-News. 
% Theodore A. Braley, Bloomington Bulletin. 

C. C. Marquis, Bloomington Pantagraph. 

H. S. Candee, Cairo Bulletin. 

John C. Fisher, Cairo Citizen. 

U. G. Orendorff, Canton Ledger. 

O. L. Davis, Champaign Gazette. 
H D. W. Stevick, Champaign Daily and Sunday News. 
J Paul F. Mueller, Chicago Abendpost. 
H t A. W. Brand, Chicago Freie Presse & Abend Presse and Chicagoer 
Presse. 

James Keeley, Chicago Herald. 

John C. Eastman, Chicago Journal. 

Victor F. Lawson, Chicago Daily News. 

J. C. Shaffer, Chicago Post. 
% Horace L. Brand, Chicago Illinois Staats-Zeitung. 

Robert R. McCormick, Chicago Tribune. 

J. H. Harrison, Danville Commercial-News. 

Clint C. Tilton, Danville Press. 

W. F. Calhoun, Decatur Herald. 
T[ J. P. Drennan, Decatur Review. 

Mrs. Mabel S. Shaw, Dixon Telegraph. 

L. F. Black, Elgin News. 

John G. Cary, Freeport Bulletin. 

James R. Cowley, Freeport Journal-Standard. 

Edward Grimm, Galena Gazette. 

William L. Fay, Jacksonville Journal. 

A. S. Leckie, Joliet Herald-News. 

Leslie Small, Kankakee Republican. 

W. E. Carpenter, Lincoln Courier-Herald. 

Van L. Hampton, Macomb By-Stander. 

E. F. Poorman, Mattoon Commercial-Star. 

P. S. McGlynn, Moline Dispatch. 

Hugh R. Moffet, Monmouth Review. 

J. E. Rackaway, Mount Vernon News. 

L. B. Sheley, Murphy sboro Republican-Era. 
H H. M. Pindell, Peoria Journal & Sunday Journal-Transcript. 

C. P. Slane, Peoria Transcript. 

317 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

H. R. Corwin, Peru News-Herald. 
C. F. Eichenauer, Quincy Herald. 
J. R. Wheeler, Quincy Journal. 
A. O. Lindsay, Quincy Whig. 

E. E. Bartlett, Rockford Register-Gazette. 
Roscoe S. Chapman, Rockford Star. 
H. P. Simpson, Rock Island Argus. 

Lewis H. Miner, Springfield Illinois State- Journal. 
Thomas Rees, Springfield Illinois State-Register. 
J. D. Stern, Springfield News-Record. 
Fred LeRoy, Streator Independent-Times. 

F. W. Scott, Urbana mini. 

INDIANA 

Thomas McCullough, Anderson Bulletin. 
Edward C. Toner, Anderson Herald. 
O. P. Bassett, Elkhart Review. 
Henry C. Murphy, Evansville Courier. 
% Fred W. Lauenstein, Evansville Demokrat. 
ii E. T. McNeely, Evansville Journal-News. 
Lewis G. Ellingham, Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. 
C. F. Bicknell, Fort Wayne News and Sentinel. 
R. F. Fowler, Frankfort Times. 
Homer J. Carr, Gary Tribune. 
Joseph A. Beane, Goshen Democrat. 
M. H. Ormsby, Huntington Press. 
Delavan Smith, Indianapolis News. 
Carroll Shaffer, Indianapolis Star. 
1f$ August Tamm, Indianapolis German Telegraph & Tribune and Sunday 
Spottvogel. 
J. A. Kautz, Kokomo Tribune. 
V. J. Obenauer, Kokomo Dispatch. 
M. Mayerstein, Lafayette Courier. 
Henry W. Marshall, Lafayette Journal. 
Edgar F. Metzger, Logansport Journal-Tribune. 
M. C. Garber, Madison Courier. 

E. H. Johnson, Marion Leader-Tribune. 
Charles E. Coffin, Muncie Star. 

F. S. Dodd, Richmond Item. 

R. G. Leeds, Richmond Palladium. 

J. M. Stephenson, South Bend News-Times. 

F. A. Miller, South Bend Tribune. 

Ernest Bross, Terre Haute Star. 

A. C. Keifer, Terre Haute Tribune. 

T. H. Adams, Vincennes Commercial. 

Estil A. Gast, Warsaw Union. 

IOWA 

S. G. Goldthwaite, Bonne News-Republican. 
George A. Stivers, Burlington Gazette. 

318 



APPENDIX 

W. B. Southwell, Burlington Hawk-Eye. 

John L. Miller, Cedar Rapids Gazette. 

Luther A. Brewer, Cedar Rapids Republican. 

W. J. Young, Jr., Clinton Herald. 

P. H. Clark, Council Bluffs Nonpareil. 

W. P. Hughes, Council Bluffs Nonpareil. 

Paul S. Junkin, Creston Advertiser-Gazette. 
1[ Frank D. Throop, Davenport Democrat Leader. 
% Fred A. Lischer, Davenport Der Demokrat. 

E. P. Adler, Davenport Times. 
Lafayette Young, Jr., Des Moines Capital. 
Gardner Cowles, Des Moines Register. 
Harvey Ingham, Des Moines Tribune. 

F. W. Woodward, Dubuque Telegraph-Herald. 
F. J. McLaughlin, Dubuque Telegraph-Herald. 
Joseph S. Morgan, Dubuque Times-Journal. 
Laura H. Smith, Dubuque Times- Journal. 

Charles A. Roberts, Fort Dodge Messenger & Chronicle. 

S. E. Carrell, Iowa City Press. 

D. W. Norris, Jr., Marshalltown Times-Republican. 

W. F. Muse, Mason City Globe Gazette. 

F. G. Mitchell, Mason City Times. 

Lee P. Loomis, Muscatine Journal. 

James R. Rhodes, Newton News. 

James F. Powell, Ottumwa Courier. 

John B. Perkins, Sioux City Journal. 

W. H. Sammons, Sioux City Journal. 

John C. Kelly, Sioux City Tribune. 

J. C. Hartman, Waterloo Courier & Reporter. 

W. A. Reed, Waterloo Times-Tribune. 

KANSAS 

R. C. Howard, Arkansas City Traveler. 
Eugene A. Howe, Atchison Globe. 
Herbert Cavaness, Chanute Tribune. 
Will R. Burge, Cherryvale Republican. 
F. W. Parrott, Clay Centre Dispatch-Republican. 
H. J. Powell, Coffeyville Journal. 
Stanley Platz, Coffeyville Sun. 
J. C. Denious, Dodge City Globe. 
Mrs. T. B. Murdock, El Dorado Republican. 
W. A. White, Emporia Gazette. 
George W. Marble, Fort Scott Tribune- Monitor. 
William S. Cady, Fredonia Herald. 
Will Townsley, Great Bend Tribune. 
W. Y. Morgan, Hutchinson News. 
Clyde H. Knox, Independence Reporter. 
Charles F. Scott, Iola Register. 
Harry E. Montgomery, Junction City Union. 
W. C. Simons, Lawrence Journal-World. 

319 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Albert T. Reid, Leavenworth Post. 

D. R. Anthony, Jr., Leavenworth Times. 
Paul A. Jones, Lyons Daily News. 

Fay N. Seaton, Manhattan Mercury. 

J. C. Mack, Newton Kansan-Republican. 

R. A. Harris, Ottawa Herald. 

Frank Motz, Parsons Sun. 

G. A. Moore, Pittsburg Headlight. 

William A. Beasley, Pittsburg Sun. 

J. L. Bristow, Salina Journal. 

Arthur Capper, Topeka Capital. 

Frank P. MacLennan, Topeka State Journal. 

H. L. Wood, Wellington News. 

H. J. Allen, Wichita Beacon. 

Victor Murdock, Wichita Eagle. 

E. P. Greer, Winfield Courier. 

KENTUCKY 
J. B. Gaines, Bowling Green News-Messenger. 
W. V. Richardson, Danville Kentucky Advocate. 
Graham Vreeland, Frankfort State- Journal. 

C. C. Givens, Henderson Gleaner. 
Leigh Harris, Henderson Journal. 

A. W. Wood, Hopkinsville New Era. 
% John G. Stoll, Lexington Leader. 

D. Breckenridge, Lexington Herald. 

| Leo C. Schuhmann, Louisville Anzeiger. 
Bruce Haldemann, Louisville Courier- Journal. 
D. E. Town, Louisville Herald. 
Richard G. Knott, Louisville Post. 
Henry Watterson, Louisville Times. 
James Purdon, Maysville Independent. 
Charles E. Herd, Middlesboro Pinnacle News. 
S. W. Hager, Owensboro Inquirer. 
Urey Woodson, Owensboro Messenger. 
John J. Berry, Paducah News-Democrat. 
W. F. Paxton, Paducah Sun. 
S. M. Saufley, Richmond Register. 
Charles Nelson, Winchester Democrat. 

LOUISIANA 

Mrs. Sophie McCormick, Alexandria Town-Talk. 
Charles P. Manship, Baton Rouge State-Times. 
Frank A. Smith, Lake Charles American-Press. 

C. E. Faulk, Monroe News-Star. 
James M. Thomson, New Orleans Item. 

1f Robert Ewing, New Orleans States. 

D. D. Moore, New Orleans Times-Picayune. 
Hunt McCaleb, Shreveport Journal. 

T. B. Goodwin, Shreveport Times. 

320 




w. .-. ?y«r., ■:% ' :,■'-« 



CHARLES T. THOMPSON 
Staff Correspondent 

CHARLES E. KLOEBER 

Staff Correspondent 



ROBERT T. SMALL 

Staff Correspondent 



EDWIN M. HOOD 
A Veteran, in the Service since 1874 



APPENDIX 

MAINE 

Charles F. Flynt, Augusta Kennebec- Journal. 
J. P. Bass, Bangor Commercial. 
J. Norman Towle, Bangor News. 
F. B. Nichols, Bath Times. 
C. H. Prescott, Biddeford Journal. 
F. L. Dingley, Lewiston Journal. 
George W. Wood, Lewiston Sun. 
S. J. Richardson, Portland Eastern Argus. 
1f William H. Dow, Portland Express & Advertiser & Sunday Telegram. 
Frederick Hale, Portland Press & Sunday Press & Times. 
J. H. Kelleher, Waterville Sentinel. 



MARYLAND 

George T. Melvin, Annapolis Advertiser. 

Felix Agnus, Baltimore American. 
% Miss Annie V. Raine, Baltimore Deutsche Correspondent. 
1[ William T. Dewart, Baltimore News. 

Van Lear Black, Baltimore Sun. 

H. E. Weber, Cumberland Times. 

Leonard D. Emmert, Hagerstown Globe. 

Vernon N. Simmons, Hagerstown Herald. 



MASSACHUSETTS 

Charles M. Palmer, Boston Daily Advertiser and Boston Sunday 

Advertiser and American. 
John R. Watts, Boston Christian Science Monitor. 
Charles H. Taylor, Boston Globe. 
Charles H. Taylor, Jr., Boston Globe. 
Robert Lincoln O'Brien, Boston Herald and Journal. 
E. A. Grozier, Boston Post. 
Louis C. Page, Boston Record. 
George S. Mandell, Boston Transcript. 
James H. Higgins, Boston Traveler. 
William R. Buchanan, Brockton Times. 
Michael Sweeney, Fall River Globe. 
; Onesime Thibault, Fall River L'Independant. 
Mabel W. Bumnton, Fall River Herald. 
Frank S. Almy, Fall River News. 
George H. Godbeer, Fitchburg Sentinel. 
S. W. Rogers, Gardner News. 
Robert L. Wright, Haverhill Gazette. 
A. H. Rogers, Lawrence Eagle. 
Kimball G. Colby, Lawrence Telegram. 
H. R. Rice, Lowell Courier- Citizen. 
Philip S. Marden, Lowell Courier-Citizen. 
John H. Harrington, Lowell Sun. 
C. H. Hastings, Lynn Item. 

21 3 2I 



M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 



Mrs. Mary E. Fox, New Bedford Mercury. 
T[ Benjamin H. Anthony, New Bedford Standard. 
A. W. Hardman, North Adams Transcript. 
Kelton B. Miller, Pittsfield Berkshire Eagle. 
Richard Hooker, Springfield Republican. 
J. D. Plummer, Springfield Union. 
A. P. Langtry, Springfield Union. 
George F. Booth, Worcester Gazette. 
John H. Fahey, Worcester Post. 
A. P. Cristy, Worcester Telegram. 

MEXICO 

t J. A. del Castillo, Guadalajara Informador. 
t Rafael Alducin, Mexico City Excelsior, 
t Jose y Solorzano, Mexico City Pueblo, 
t F. F. Palavicini, Mexico City Universal. 
| Emeterio Flores, Monterey Progreso. 

MICHIGAN 

Stuart H. Perry, Adrian Telegram & Times. 

Thomas J. Ferguson, Alpena News. 

Gordon Stoner, Ann Arbor Michigan Daily. 

R. T. Dobson, Ann Arbor Times-News. 

Frank C. Grandin, Battle Creek Enquirer. 

A. L. Miller, Battle Creek News. 

Bernard M. Wynkoop, Bay City Times-Tribune. 

Ephraim W. Moore, Benton Harbor New-Palladium. 

John R. Pimlott, Calumet News. 

W. H. Gamble, Cheboygan Tribune. 
J{A. Marxhausen, Detroit Abendpost. 

Philip H. McMillan, Detroit Free Press. 

N. C. Wright, Detroit Journal. 
Tf George G. Booth, Detroit News & Sunday News. 

Ivan G. English, Escanaba Mirror. 

Charles M. Green way, Flint Journal. 

William Alden Smith, Grand Rapids Herald. 

Edmund W. Booth, Grand Rapids Press. 

Albert S. Ley, Hancock Copper Journal. 

H. J. Burgess, Hillsdale News. 

W. G. Rice, Houghton Mining Gazette. 

John George, Jr., Jackson Citizen-Press. 

Edward W. Barber, Jackson Patriot. 
TI F, F. Rowe, Kalamazoo Gazette. 

Charles N. Halsted, Lansing State Journal. 

Alton T. Roberts, Marquette Chronicle. 

Albert Hornstein, Marquette Mining Journal. 

R. M. Andrews, Menominee Herald-Leader. 

Ralph H. Booth, Muskegon Chronicle. 

George T. Campbell, Owosso Argus-Press. 

322 



APPENDIX 

H. H. Fitzgerald, Pontiac Press-Gazette. 
Louis A. Weil, Port Huron Times-Herald. 
W. J. Hunsaker, Saginaw Courier-Herald. 
Arthur R. Treanor, Saginaw News. 
George A. Osborn, Sault Ste. Marie News. 

MINNESOTA 

A. C. Weiss, Duluth Herald. 
Milie Bunnell, Duluth News-Tribune. 
Frank A. Day, Fairmont Daily & Martin County Sentinel. 
R. W. Hitchcock, Hibbing Tribune. 
Michael D. Fritz, Mankato Free Press. 
H. V. Jones, Minneapolis Journal. 
Rome G. Brown, Minneapolis Tribune. 
W. J. Murphy, Minneapolis Tribune. 
N. P. Olson, Red Wing Eagle. 
G. S. Witherstine, Rochester Bulletin. 
Fred. Schilplin, St. Cloud Times. 
C. K. Blandin, St. Paul Dispatch. 
Mrs. A. I. Thompson, St. Paul Pioneer Press. 
% F. W. Bergmeier, St. Paul Volkszeitung. 
A. B. Coates, Virginia Enterprise. 
H. G. White, Winona Independent. 
William Hayes Laird, Winona Republican-Herald. 

MISSISSIPPI 

L. Pink Smith, Greenville Democrat. 

Mrs. M. L. Gillespie, Greenwood Commonwealth. 

W. G. Wilkes, Gulfport Herald. 

Howard S. Williams, Hattiesburg American. 

R. H. Henry, Jackson Clarion-Ledger. 

W. G. Johnson, Jackson News. 

F. W. Sullivan, Laurel Leader. 

James A. Metcalf, Meridian Dispatch. 

R. R. Buvinger, Meridian Star. 

James K. Lambert, Natchez Democrat. 

E. A. Fitzgerald, Vicksburg Herald. 

MISSOURI 

Fred Naeter, Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian. 
W. J. Sewell, Carthage Press. 
H. D. McHolland, Chillicothe Tribune. 
H. W. Smith, Columbia Missourian. 
Ovid Bell, Fulton Gazette. 
J. B. Jeffries, Hannibal Courier-Post. 
A. H. Rogers, Joplin Globe. 
^[ P. E. Burton, Joplin News-Herald. 
C. S. Gleed, Kansas City Journal. 
Mrs. I. H. Nelson, Kansas City Star. 

323 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Mrs. L. N. Kirkwood, Kansas City Times. 

A. L. Preston, Moberly Index. 

Albert Welsz, Moberly Monitor. 
T[ Anthony D. Stanley, Sedalia Democrat. 

C. D. Morris, St. Joseph Gazette. 

Louis T. Golding, St. Joseph News & Press. 

Charles H. McKee, St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 
If Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

David R. Francis, St. Louis Republic. 
t G. A. Buder, St. Louis Westliche Post. 

Harry S. Jewell, Springfield Leader. 

E. E. E. Mcjimsey, Springfield Republican. 

W. B. Rogers, Trenton Republican-Tribune. 

MONTANA 

W. A. Bower, Anaconda Standard. 

Joseph Hanlon, Billings Gazette. 

J. A. Werner, Billings Journal. 

James P. Bole, Bozeman Chronicle. 

J. K. Heslet, Butte Miner. 

J. H. Durston, Butte Post. 

E. H. Cooney, Great Falls Leader. 

William M. Bole, Great Falls Tribune. 

O. H. P. Shelley, Havre Promoter. 

Will A. Campbell, Helena Independent. 

O. M. Lanstrum, Helena Montana Record-Herald. 

T. H. MacDonald, Kalispell Inter Lake. 

Tom Stout, Lewistown Democrat-News. 

Jerome G. Locke, Livingston Enterprise. 

Joseph D. Scanlan, Miles City Star. 

Martin J. Hutchens, Missoula Missoulian. 

George C. Rice, Missoula Sentinel. 

NEBRASKA 

E. M. Marvin, Beatrice Sun. 

Ross L. Hammond, Fremont Tribune. 

A. F. Buechler, Grand Island Independent. 

Herbert E. Gooch, Lincoln Star. 

J. C. Seacrest, Lincoln State Journal. 

E. F. Huse, Norfolk News. 

Victor Rosewater, Omaha Bee. 

N. P. Feil, Omaha Bee. 

Gilbert M. Hitchcock, Omaha World-Herald. 

William G. Crounse, Omaha World-Herald. 

Thomas Curran, York News-Times, 

NEVADA 

Charles H. Keith, Elko Independent. 
V. L. Ricketts, Goldfield Tribune. 

324 



APPENDIX 

Graham Sandford, Reno Gazette. 

George D. Kilborn, Reno, Nevada State Journal. 

W. W. Booth, Tonopah Bonanza. 

L. N. Clark, Jr., Virginia Chronicle. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 

W. D. Chandler, Concord Monitor. 

George J. Foster, Dover Democrat. 

W. H. Prentiss, Keene Sentinel. 

John A. Muehling, Manchester Leader & Union. 

A. E. Clarke, Manchester Mirror & American. 

Frank Knox, Manchester Union. 

Burtt E. Warren, Nashua Telegraph. 

F. W. Hartford, Portsmouth Chronicle. 
E. T. Kane, Portsmouth Herald. 

NEW JERSEY 

Tf J. L. Kinmonth, Asbury Park Press. 
* G. Wisner Thorne, Newark Sunday Call. 

H. S. Thalheimer, Newark Star-Eagle. 
% James G. Nolan, Newark Freie Zeitung. 

L. T. Russell, Newark Ledger. 

W. M. Scudder, Newark News. 

E. A. Bristor, Passaic Herald. 

George M. Hartt, Passaic News. 

Robert Williams, Paterson Call. 
1f William B. Bryant, Paterson Press-Guardian & Sunday Chronicle. 

Charles H. Baker, Trenton State Gazette. 

NEW MEXICO 

George S. Valliant, Albuquerque Herald. 
D. A. MacPherson, Albuquerque Journal. 
M. M. Padgett, East Las Vegas Optic. 
Harry Jaff, Roswell News. 
Bronson M. Cutting, Santa Fe New Mexican. 

NEW YORK 

James C. Farrell, Albany Argus. 

William Barnes, Albany Journal. 

Lynn J. Arnold, Albany Knickerbocker- Press. 

Martin H. Glynn, Albany Times Union. 

William J. Kline, Amsterdam Recorder & Democrat. 

Herbert J. Fowler, Auburn Advertiser. 

Thomas M. Osborne, Auburn Citizen. 

G. S. Griswold, Batavia News. 
Jerome B. Hadsell, Binghamton Press. 

William G. Phelps, Binghamton Republican-Herald. 
U William Hester, Brooklyn Eagle. 

325 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

William C. Warren, Buffalo Commercial. 
W. J. Connors, Buffalo Courier. 
James W. Greene, Buffalo Express. 
E. H. Butler, Buffalo News. 
TI Norman E. Mack, Buffalo Times. 
W. H. Clark, Cortland Standard. 
Milo Shanks, Elmira Advertiser. 

E. R. Davenport, Elmira Star-Gazette. 
* H. S. Brooks, Elmira Telegram. 

Wallace W. Page, Geneva News. 

J. Edward Singleton, Glens Falls Post-Star. 

Andrew Peck, Gloversville Herald. 

Mrs. Julia Collins Ormiston, Gloversville Leader-Republican. 

William H. Greenhow, Hornell Tribune- Times'. 

John F. Brennen, Hudson Register. 

Frank E. Gannett, Ithaca Journal. 

Sherman Peer, Ithaca Cornell Sun. 

Frederick P. Hall, Jamestown Journal. 

Edward L. Allen, Jamestown Post. 

Charles M. Redfield, Malone Telegram. 

Charles A. Evans, Middletown Argus. 

M. A. Stivers, Middletown Times-Press. 

Bradford Merrill, New York American. 
§ Miss Mary J. Sampers, New York Courrier-des-E.-U. 

Jason Rogers, New York Globe & Commercial Advertiser. 

James Gordon Bennett,' New York Herald. 
J Julius Holz, New York Herold. 
t Mrs. A. Wolffram, New York Herold Abend-Zeitung. 

Alfred W. Dodsworth, N. Y. Journal of Commerce. 

Henry L. Stoddard, New York Mail. 

Oswald Garrison Villard, New York Evening Post. 
% Bernard H. Ridder, New York Staats-Zeitung. 
j Victor F. Ridder, N. Y. Staats Zeitung-Abendblatt. 

Frank A. Munsey, New York Sun. 

George L. Cooper, New York Telegram. 

Adolph S. Ochs, New York Times. 

Ogden M. Reid, New York Tribune. 

Don C. Seitz, New York World. 

Florence D. White, New York World. * 

F. P. Palmer, Ogdensburg Journal. 
William L. Ostrom, Olean Herald. 
H. W. Lee, Oneonta Star. 

Mrs. T. F. Mannix, Plattsburg Press. 
Daniel F. Cock, Port Jervis Gazette. 
F. R. Salmon, Port Jervis Union. 
Edmund Piatt, Poughkeepsie Eagle-News. 
Arthur A. Parks, Poughkeepsie Star. 
W. H. Mathews, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. 
Francis B. Mitchell, Rochester Post-Express. 
A. C. Kessinger, Rome Sentinel. 

326 



APPENDIX 

A. N. Liecty, Schenectady Gazette. 
^ E. H. O'Hara, Syracuse Herald. 
Jerome D. Barnum, Syracuse Post-Standard. 

* Charles A. MacArthur, Troy Northern Budget. 

D. B. Plum, Troy Record. 
Henry S. Ludlow, Troy Record. 
John M. Francis, Troy Times. 
Prentiss Bailey, Utica Observer. 
George E. Dunham, Utica Press. 

* Jacob Agne, Jr., Utica Tribune. 
Edward N. Smith, Watertown Standard. 
W. D. McKinstry, Watertown Times. 

E. Willard Barnes, Wellsville Reporter. 
Edwin A. Oliver, Yonkers Statesman. 

NORTH CAROLINA 

Robert S. Jones, Asheville Citizen. 

C. A. Webb, Asheville Times. 

W. C. Dowd, Charlotte News & Chronicle. 

W. B. Sullivan, Charlotte Observer. 

J. B. Sherrill, Concord Tribune. 

E. J. Hale, Jr., Fayetteville Observer. 

Joseph E. Robinson, Goldsboro Argus. 

E. B. Jeffress, Greensboro News. 

Al. Fairbrother, Greensboro Record. 

D. J. Whichard, Greenville Reflector. 
P. T. Way, Henderson Dispatch. 

S. H. Farabee, Hickory Record. 

Parker R. Anderson, High Point Enterprise. 

Guy G. Moore, Kinston News. 

Owen G. Dunn, New Bern Sun-Journal. 

Josephus Daniels, Raleigh News & Observer. 

John A. Park, Raleigh Times. 

J. Lawrence Home, Jr., Rocky Mount Telegram. 

James F. Hurley, Salisbury Post. 

W. E. Lawson, Wilmington Dispatch. 

J. E. Thompson, Wilmington Star. 

John D. Gold, Wilson Times. 

N. L. Cranford, Winston-Salem Journal. 

A. B. Burbank, Winston-Salem Twin City Sentinel. 

NORTH DAKOTA 

George D. Mann, Bismarck Tribune. 
Mrs. Beatrice Mann, Bismarck Tribune. 
Herbert E. Gaston, Fargo Courier-News. 
N. B. Black, Fargo Forum & Republican. 
J. D. Bacon, Grand Forks Herald. 
O. S. Hanson, Grand Forks Herald. 
W. R. Kellogg, Jamestown Alert. 

327 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

E. A. Tostevin, Mandan Pioneer. 

W. M. Smart, Minot News & Optic-Reporter. 

C. A. Johnson, Minot News & Optic-Reporter. 

C. J. Stickney, New Rockford State- Center. 

OHIO 

1f W. Kee Maxwell, Akron Times. 

J. J. Parshall, Ashtabula Star and Beacon. 

N. A. Geyer, Cambridge Times. 
^ George B. Frease, Canton Repository. 

D. M. Massie, Chillicothe Scioto Gazette. 

Eli Moffett Millen, Cincinnati Commercial Tribune. 

Charles J. Bell, Cincinnati Enquirer. 
t Max Burgheim, Cincinnati Freie Presse. 

Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati Times-Star, 
t Gerhard Huelsemann, Cincinnati Volksblatt. 
IT W. P. Leech, Cleveland News and Sunday Leader. 

Elbert H. Baker, Cleveland Plain Dealer. 
T[$ Charles W. Meadje, Cleveland Waechter una 1 Anzeiger. 

Robert F. Wolfe, Columbus State Journal. 
f Harry P. Wolfe, Columbus Dispatch. 

W. E. Putnam, Conneaut News Herald. 

E. G. Burkam, Dayton Journal. 
James M. Cox, Dayton News. 
Francis L. Bixler, Dover Daily Reporter. 
John W. Moore, East Liverpool Tribune. 
I. N. Heminger, Findlay Republican. 
Homer Gard, Hamilton Journal. 

Walter L. Tobey, Hamilton Republican News. 

H. M. Paul, Ironton Irontonian. 

W. A. Campbell, Lima Republican-Gazette. 

H. G. Brunner, Mansfield Shield. 

W. H. H. Jett, Marietta Register-Leader. 

L. L. Lamborn, Marion Ohio Tribune. 

Miss B. V. R. Skinner, Massillon Independent. 

F. B. Pauly, Middletown Journal. 
Donald H. Harper, Mount Vernon Banner. 
C. H. Spencer, Newark Advocate. 

Harry E. Taylor, Portsmouth Times. 

Egbert H. Mack, Sandusky Register, 
f R. B. Mead, Springfield News. 

Warren A. Myers, Springfield Sun. 

Charles D. Simeral, Steubenville Herald-Star. 

John P. Locke, Tiffin Tribune-Herald. 

Robinson Locke, Toledo Blade. 
% Henry C. Vortriede, Toledo Express. 

Clarence Brown, Toledo Times. 

C. H. Lewis, Upper Sandusky Union. 

Frank C. Gaumer, Urbana Citizen. 

Joseph H. Harper, Washington C. H. Herald. 

328 



APPENDIX 

W. J. Galvin, Wilmington News. 
Samuel G. McClure, Youngstown Telegram. 
Tf W. F. Maag, Youngstown Vindicator. 
William O. Littick, Zanesville Times-Recorder. 

OKLAHOMA 

Byron Xorrell, Ada News. 

H. G. Spaulding, Ardmore Ardmoreite. 

C. H. Adams, Ardmore Ardmoreite. 

J. S. Leach, Bartlesville Enterprise. 

N. D. Welty, Bartlesville Examiner. 

Lou S. Allard, Drumright Derrick. 

William M. Taylor, Enid Eagle. 

W. D. Frantz, Enid Times. 

Leslie G. Niblack, Guthrie Leader. 
T[ George R. Hall, Henryetta Free Lance. 

Eugene McMahon, Lawton News. 

J. R. Williams, McAlester News-Capital. 
^ J. A. Lloyd, Miami District Daily News. 

Tarns Bixby, Muskogee Phoenix. 

C. A. Looney, Muskogee Times-Democrat. 

Roy E. Stafford, Oklahoma City Oklahoman. 

E. K. Gaylord, Oklahoma City Times. 
^[ B. C. Hodges, Okmulgee Democrat. 

A. C. Smith, Ponca City Democrat. 

Otis B. Weaver, Shawnee News Herald. 

Charles Page, Tulsa Democrat. 

Eugene Lorton, Tulsa World. 

OREGON 

J. S. Dellinger, Astoria Astorian. 
I. B. Bowen, Baker City Democrat. 
Charles L. Springer, Corvallis Gazette-Times. 
Frank Jenkins, Eugene Register. 

A. E. Voorhies, Grant's Pass Rogue River Courier 
Wesley O. Smith, Klamath Falls Herald. 

M. C. Maloney, Marshfield Coos Bay Times. 
George Putnam, Medford Mail-Tribune. 
S. S. Smith, Medford Sun. 

C. J. Owen, Pendleton Tribune. 

H. L. Pittock, Portland Oregonian. 

J. E. Wheeler, Portland Telegram. 

R. W. Bates, Roseburg News. 

R. J. Hendricks, Salem, Oregon Statesman. 

PENNSYLVANIA 

D. A. Miller, Allentown Call. 

George H. Hardner, Allentown City Item. 

B. Leopold, Altoona Times. 

329 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Henry W. Shoemaker, Altoona Tribune. 

L. J. Heller, Bethlehem Times. 

Warren A. Wilbur, Bethlehem Globe. 

J. W. Milligan, Bradford Era. 

Mrs. K. M. Snyder, Connellsville Courier. 

John H. McGrath, Easton Express. 

C. N. Andrews, Easton Free Press. 

Charles H. Strong, Erie Dispatch. 

H. D. Shepard, Hanover Sun. 

V. C. McCormick, Harrisburg Patriot. 

E. J. Stackpole, Jr., Harrisburg Telegraph & Star Independent. 

Henry Walser, Hazelton, Standard Sentinel. 

W. W. Bailey, Johnstown Democrat. 

W. Frank Gorrecht, Lancaster Examiner. 

C. S. Foltz, Lancaster Intelligencer. 

J. H. Steinman, Lancaster News- Journal. 

B. S. Schindle, Lancaster New Era. 

W. I. Bates, Meadville Tribune-Republican. 

B. F. Kline, New Castle Herald. 

P. C. Boyle, Oil City Derrick. 

W. L. McLean, Philadelphia Bulletin. 

James Elverson, Philadelphia Inquirer. 
% Gustav Mayer, Philadelphia Morgen-Gazette. 

E. A. Van Valkenburg, Philadelphia N. American. 

Alden March, Philadelphia Press. 

Cyrus H. K. Curtis, Philadelphia Public Ledger. 

M. F. Hanson, Philadelphia Record. 

Thomas D. Taylor, Philadelphia Telegraph. 

George T. Oliver, Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph. 

Charles A. Rook, Pittsburgh Dispatch. 

George S. Oliver, Pittsburgh Gazette-Times. 
H A. P. Moore, Pittsburgh Leader. 

A. E. Braun, Pittsburgh Post. 
1 1. E. Hirsch, Pittsburgh Volksblatt und Freiheits Freund. 

J. H. Zerbey, Pottsville Republican. 
1[ John W. Rauch, Reading Eagle. 

Dudley H. Miller, Reading Telegram. 

Frederick S. Fox, Reading News-Times. 

W. J. Pattison, Scranton Republican. 

J. M. Bloss, Titusville Herald. 

H. G. Sturgis, Uniontown Genius. 

L. B. Brownfield, Uniontown Herald. 

W. Floyd Clinger, Warren Mirror. 

H. W. Bloomfield, Washington News. 

J. Andrew Boyd, Wilkesbarre Record. 

H. R. Laird, Williamsport Gazette & Bulletin. 
* Diet rick Lamade, Williamsport Pennsylvania Grit. 

George E. Graaf, Williamsport Sun. 

William L. Young, York Daily. 

William L. Taylor, York Dispatch. 

Allen C. Wiest, York Gazette. 

330 



APPENDIX 

RHODE ISLAND 

W. D. Hazard, Newport Herald. 

T. T. Pitman, Newport News. 

Charles O. Black, Pawtucket Times. 

G. Edward Buxton, Jr., Providence Bulletin. 

D. Russell Brown, Providence News. 

John R. Rathom, Providence Journal. 

M. S. Dwyer, Providence Tribune. 

George B. Utter, Westerly Sun. 

S. E. Hudson, Woonsocket Call & Reporter. 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

G. P. Browne, Anderson Mail. 

James Simons, Charleston News and Courier and Sunday News. 

Thomas R. Waring, Charleston Post. 

Edwin N. Robertson, Columbia Record. 

A. E. Gonzales, Columbia State. 
M. C. Brunson, Florence Times. 

G. W. Gardner, Jr., Greenwood Journal. 

B. H. Peace, Greenville News. 
George R. Koester, Greenville Piedmont. 
Charles O. Hearon, Spartanburg Herald. 

Max Bridges, Spartanburg Journal & Carolina Spartan. 
H. G. Oseen, Sumter Item. 
Lewis M. Rice, Union Times. 

SOUTH DAKOTA 

J. H. McKeever, Aberdeen Daily American. 

C. J. McLeod, Aberdeen News. 

Willis H. Bonham, Deadwood Pioneer Times. 
W. S. Bowen, Huron Huronite. 
John A. Stanley, Lead Call. 

F. L. Mease, Madison Sentinel. 

W. R. Ronald, Mitchell Republican. 
A. E. Dean, Mitchell Republican. 
Walter E. Woolf, Mobridge Tribune. 
Joseph B. Gossage, Rapid City Journal. 
C. M. Day, Sioux Falls Argus Leader. 
C. L. Dotson, Sioux Falls Press. 
K. B. Way, Watertown Public Opinion. 
S. X. Way, Watertown Public Opinion. 
W. C. Lusk, Yankton Press 6f Dakotan. 

TENNESSEE 

G. F. Milton, Chattanooga News. 
H. C. Adler, Chattanooga Times. 

W. W. Barkesdale, Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. 
I. B. Tigrett, Jackson Sun. 

331 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

E. M. Slack, Johnson City Staff. 

A. F. Sanford, Knoxville Journal & Tribune. 

Curtis B. Johnson, Knoxville Sentinel. 

W. J. Crawford, Memphis Commercial-Appeal. 

S. E. Ragland, Memphis News- Scimitar. 

E. B. Stahlman, Nashville Banner. 

Luke Lea, Nashville Tennesseean & American. 

TEXAS 

George S. Anderson, Abilene Reporter. 
M. B. Hanks, Abilene Reporter-News. 
J. L. Nunn, Amarillo News. 
Robert Driscoll, Austin American. 
\ R. E. L. Batts, Austin Statesman. 
W. P. Hobby, Beaumont Enterprise. 
Charles L. Shless, Beaumont Journal. 
Martin J. Slattery, Brownsville Herald. 
H. F. Mayes, Brownwood Bulletin. 
E. E. Talmage, Bryan Eagle. 
J. R. Ransone, Jr., Cleburne Enterprise. 
O. H. Poole, Cleburne Review. 
Robert J. Kleberg, Corpus Christi Caller & Herald. 

A. A. Wortham, Corsicana Sun. 
George B. Dealey, Dallas News. 
Edwin J. Kiest, Dallas Times-Herald. 
H. E. Ellis, Denison Herald. 

W. C. Edwards, Denton Record & Chronicle. 
H. D. Slater, El Paso Herald. 
Frank Powers, El Paso Times, 
f J. F. Williams, El Paso Times. 
G. G. Dunkerley, Ennis News. 
W. H. Bagley, Fort Worth Record. 
Louis J. Wortham, Fort Worth Star & Telegram. 
C. H. Leonard, Gainesville Register & Messenger. 
John F. Lubben, Galveston News. 
C. H. McMaster, Galveston Tribune. 
Fred Horton, Greenville Banner. 
L. J. Thompson, Hillsboro Mirror. 
M. E. Foster, Houston Chronicle and Herald. 
R. M. Johnston, Houston Post. 
J. G. Burr, Laredo Record. 
Justo S. Penn, Laredo Times. 

B. G. Whitehead, McAUen Rio Grande Sun. 
J. M. Kennedy, Marlin Democrat. 

W. A. Adair, Marshall Messenger. 
J. L. Spencer, Mart Herald. 
W. M. Hamilton, Palestine Herald. 
Jesse G. Marshall, Paris Advocate. 
Sayers Boyd, Paris News. 
L. M. Davis, Port Arthur Record. 

332 



APPENDIX 

Tf J. G. Murphy, San Angelo Standard. 

F. G. Huntress, Jr., San Antonio Express. 

Charles S. Diehl, San Antonio Light. 

E. C. Hunter, Sherman Democrat. 

George T. Spears, Sweetwater Reporter. 

Mrs. P. O. Willson, Taylor Democrat. 

E. K. Williams, Temple Telegram. 

H. Galbraith, Terrell Transcript. 

H. A. McDougal, Tyler Courier-Times. 

L. M. Green, Tyler Tribune. 

Charles E. Marsh, Waco News. 

George Robinson, Waco Times-Herald. 

J. H. Railey, Weatherford Herald. 
% Ed. Howard, Wichita Falls Times. 

Wyche Greer, Wichita Falls Tribune. 

C. H. Gilbert, Yoakum Herald. 

UTAH 

Charles England, Logan Journal. 
J. U. Eldredge, Jr., Ogden Examiner. 
R. C. Glasmann, Ogden Standard. 
Joseph F. Smith, Salt Lake Deseret News. 

E. E. Jenkins, Salt Lake Herald-Republican. 
George E. Hale, Salt Lake Telegram. 

A. N. McKay, Salt Lake Tribune. 

VERMONT 

Frank E. Langley, Barre Times. 

F. E. Howe, Bennington Banner. 

W. E. Hubbard, Brattleboro Reformer. . 

Henry B. Shaw, Burlington News. 

W. B. Howe, Burlington Free Press & Times. 

George Atkins, Montpelier Argus. 

Percival W. Clement, Rutland Herald. 

Charles T. Fairfield, Rutland News. 

E. C. Smith, St. Albans Messenger. 

W. D. Pelley, St. Johnsbury Caledonian. 

VIRGINIA 

P. M. Burdette, Bristol Herald-Courier. 

R. A. James, Jr., Danville Bee. 

R. A. James, Danville Register. 

George B. Keezell, Harrisonburg News-Record. 

Powell Glass, Lynchburg Advance. 

Carter Glass, Lynchburg News. 

John G. Pollard, Newport News Press. 

W. S. Copeland, Newport News Times-Herald. 

S. L. Slover, Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch. 

Hugh C. Davis, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot & Landmark. 

333 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 



W. E. Harris, Petersburg Index-Appeal. 

Norman R. Hamilton, Portsmouth Star. 

Eugene Paddock Ham, Pulaski Southwest Times. 

John Stewart Bryan, Richmond News-Leader. 

Charles E. Hasbrook, Richmond Times Dispatch. 

W. E. Thomas, Roanoke Times. 

J. B. Fishburn, Roanoke World-News. 

H. L. Opie, Staunton Leader. 

E. W. Opie, Staunton Evening Leader. 

WASHINGTON 

W. A. Rupp, Aberdeen World. 

Frank I. Sefrit, Bellingham American-Reveille. 

E. G. Earle, Bellingham Herald. 

R. W. Edinger, Centralia Chronicle. 

M. E. Cue, Centralia Hub. 

J. Clifford Kaynor, Ellensburg Record. 

J. B. Best, Everett Herald. 

A. S. Taylor, Everett Tribune. 

Albert Johnson, Hoquiam Grays Harbor Washingtonian. 

J. H. Douglass, Olympia Recorder. 

A. V. Watts, Port Angeles Herald. 

Scott C. Bone, Seattle Post Intelligencer. 

C. B. Blethen, Seattle Times. 

Thomas Hooker, Spokane Chronicle. 

W. H. Cowles, Spokane Spokesman-Review. 

S. A. Perkins, Tacoma Ledger & Sunday News Ledger. 

O. W. Perkins, Tacoma News. 

E. E. Beard, Vancouver Columbian. 

John G. Kelly, Walla Walla Bulletin. 

E. G. Robb, Walla Walla Union. 

Rufus Woods, Wenatchee World. 

H. P. Barrett, Yakima Herald. 

W. W. Robertson, Yakima Republic. 

WEST VIRGINIA 

H. I. Shott, Bluefield Telegraph. 
T. S. Clark, Charleston Gazette. 
Walter E. Clark, Charleston Mail. 
T[ V. L. Highland, Clarksburg Telegram. 
Herman G. Johnson, Elkins Inter- Mountain. 
C. E. Smith, Fairmont Times. 
W. J. Weigel, Fairmont West Virginian. 
Howard H. Holt, Grafton Sentinel 
Dave Gideon, Huntington Herald-Dispatch. 
.Gray Silver, Martinsburg World. 
Jo L. Keener, Morgantown Post. 
Gilbert B. Miller, Morgantown New Dominion. 
Miss Hannah L. G. Kane, Parkersburg News. 

334 






APPENDIX 

A. B. Smith, Parkersburg Sentinel. 

R. P. Bell, Point Pleasant Register. 

H. C. Ogden, Wheeling Intelligencer and Sunday News. 

F. P. McNeil, Wheeling News. 

William L. Brice, Wheeling Register. 

C. H. Henderson, Wheeling Telegraph. 

WISCONSIN 

Percy C. Atkinson, Eau Claire Leader. 
J. F. Cooley, Grand Rapids Leader. 
John K. Kline, Green Bay Press-Gazette. 
H. F. Bliss, Janesville Gazette. 

A. M. Brayton, La Crosse Tribune fif Leader Press. 
William T. Evjue, Madison Capital-Times. 

Oscar D. Brandenburg, Madison Democrat. 

William F. Ohde, Manitowoc Herald. 

Edward W. LeRoy, Marinette Eagle Star. 
X William C. Brumder, Milwaukee Germania-Abendpost. 
t George F. Brumder, Milwaukee Herold und Seebote and Sonntagspost. 

Lucius W. Nieman, Milwaukee Journal. 

Melvil A. Hoyt, Milwaukee News. 

Charles F. Pfister, Milwaukee Sentinel. 

Mrs. Harriet L. Cramer, Milwaukee Wisconsin. 

John Hicks, Oshkosh Northwestern. 

F. W. Starbuck, Racine Journal-News. 

H. A. Lewis, Rhinelander News. 

Charles H. Weisse, Sheboygan Press. 

J. T. Murphy, Superior Telegram. 

J. L. Sturtevant, Wausau Record-Herald. 

WYOMING 

Percy M. Cropper, Casper Press. 

B. H. Sinclair, Cheyenne State Leader. 
William C. Deming, Cheyenne Wyoming Tribune. 
W. E. Chaplin, Laramie Republican. 

% T. C. Diers, Sheridan Enterprise. 



CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF 
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

{New York Corporation) 

WE, THE undersigned, all being persons of full age, and all being 
citizens of the United States, and at least one of whom is a 
resident of the State of New York, desiring to form a corporation for the 
purposes hereinafter set forth, pursuant to the provisions of the Member- 
ship Corporations Law, entitled, "An Act Relating to Membership 
Corporations," approved May 8, 1895, as since from time to time 
amended, do hereby make, sign and acknowledge this Certificate, 
and we accordingly do hereby certify: 

I. The name of the proposed corporation is "The Associated Press." 

II. The said corporation is an association of certain persons, who, 
owning or representing certain newspapers, unite in a mutual and co- 
operative organization for the collection and interchange, with greater 
economy and efficiency, of information and intelligence for publication 
in the newspapers owned or represented by them. Other owners or 
representatives of newspapers, from time to time, may be elected to 
membership in such manner and upon and subject to such conditions, 
regulations and limitations as may be prescribed by the By-Laws, and 
no person not so elected shall have any right or interest in the corporation 
or enjoy any of the privileges or benefits thereof. 

The objects and purposes for which the said corporation is formed are 
to gather, obtain and procure by its own instrumentalities, by exchange 
with its members and by any other appropriate means, any and all 
kinds of information and intelligence, telegraphic and otherwise, for the 
use and benefit of its members and to furnish and supply the same to 
its members for publication in the newspapers owned or represented by 
them, under and subject to such regulations, conditions and limitations 
as may be prescribed by the By-Laws; and the mutual co-operation, 
benefit and protection of its members. In furtherance of its said object 
and purposes it shall have power to purchase and acquire in the State 
of New York and elsewhere such real and personal estate and property 
as may be necessary or proper, and to mortgage the same to secure the 
payment of any bonds which may be issued by the corporation, and 
generally to do any and all things which may be necessary or proper 

336 




robert m. collins. london elmer roberts. paris 

salvatore cortesi. rome charles s. smith. peking 

Foreign Bureau Chiefs 



APPENDIX 

in connection with its objects and purposes, which may not be contrary 
to law. 

The corporation is not to make a profit nor to make or declare dividends 
and is not to engage in the business of selling intelligence, nor traffic 
in the same. 

III. The territory in which the operations of the corporation are to 
be principally conducted is within the limits of the United States of 
America and its Territories and Canada, but it is also to have power to 
conduct such operations in part outside of the limits of the United States, 
so far as may be necessary in accomplishing the objects and purposes 
of its organization. 

IV. The principal office of the Corporation is to be located in the City 
of New York, in the State of New York. 

V. The duration of such corporation is to be perpetual. 

VI. The number of Directors of such Corporation is to be six.* 

The names and places of residence of the persons who are to be its 
Directors until its first annual meeting are : 

Name Place of Residence 

Stephen O'Meara 262 Washington Street, Boston, Mass. 

Adolph S. Ochs 41 Park Row, Borough of Manhattan, New 

York City. 

St. Clair McKelway Corner Washington and Johnson Streets, 

Borough of Brooklyn, New York City. 

William L. McLean 612 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Penn- 
sylvania. 

Frank B. Noyes 1101 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, 

D. C. 

Alfred H. Belo Corner Lamar and Commerce Streets, 

Dallas, Texas. 

VII. The date for holding its annual meeting shall be the third Wednes- 
day in September of each year.f 

In Witness Whereof, we, the subscribers, have made, signed and 
acknowledged this Certificate in duplicate, and have hereunto sub- 
scribed our names, this twenty-second day of May, 1900. 

Stephen O'Meara, 
Adolph S. Ochs, 
St. Clair McKelway, 
William L. McLean, 
Frank B. Noyes, 
A. H. Belo. 

* By resolution of the members of the Association, adopted September 29, 1900, and 
filed with the Secretary of State November 21, 1900, the number of Directors was in- 
creased to fifteen. 

t By resolution of the members of the Association, adopted September 18, 1907, and 
filed with the Secretary of State September 21, 1907, the time of the annual meeting 
was changed to "the Tuesday preceding the fourth Thursday in April of each year." 



22 



337 



BY-LAWS OP THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

{New York Corporation) 
ARTICLE I 

OBJECTS 

The incorporators of this Association are certain persons, who, 
owning or representing newspapers, unite in a mutual and co-operative 
organization for the collection and interchange, with greater economy 
and efficiency, of intelligence for publication in the newspapers owned 
or represented by them. Other owners or representatives of news- 
papers, from time to time, may be elected to membership in the manner 
and upon and subject to the conditions, regulations and limitations 
prescribed by these By-Laws, and no persons not so elected shall have 
any right or interest in the Corporation or enjoy any of the privileges 
or benefits thereof. 

The objects and purposes for which the Corporation is formed are to 
gather, obtain and procure by its own instrumentalities, by exchange 
with its members, and by any other appropriate means, any and all 
kinds of information and intelligence, telegraphic and otherwise, for the 
use and benefit of its members, and to furnish and supply the same 
to its members for publication in the newspapers owned or represented 
by them, under and subject to such regulations, conditions and limita- 
tions as may be prescribed by the By-Laws; and the mutual co-opera- 
tion, benefit and protection of its members. In furtherance of its said 
objects and purposes it shall have power to purchase and acquire in the 
State of New York and elsewhere such real and personal estate and 
property as may be necessary or proper, and to mortgage the same to 
secure the payment of any bonds which may be issued by the Corpora- 
tion, and generally to do any and all things which may be necessary 
or proper in connection with its objects and purposes, which may not 
be contrary to law. 

The Corporation is not to make a profit, nor to make or declare divi- 
dends, and is not to engage in the business of selling intelligence nor 
traffic in the same. 

ARTICLE II 

MEMBERSHIP 

Section i. The sole or part owner of a newspaper, or an executive 
officer of a corporation, limited liability company, or joint stock or 

338 



APPENDIX 

other association which is the owner of a newspaper, shall be eligible 
to election as a member of this Corporation, in the way and upon and 
subject to the conditions and limitations hereinafter specified, provided 
that not more than one person at a time shall be eligible by reason of 
connection with any one newspaper. No other person shall be eligible. 

Sec. 2. Every applicant for membership in this Corporation shall 
file with the Secretary of the Corporation such proof as may be required 
by its Board of Directors of his ownership or part ownership, or of the 
ownership by a corporation, limited liability company, or joint stock 
or other association of which he is an executive officer, of a specified 
newspaper. In case he shall be only a part owner, he shall file also the 
consent of his co-owners to his election. In case he shall be an executive 
officer of a corporation, limited liability company, or joint stock or other 
association, he shall file also a certificate to that effect under its seal 
in such form as may be required by the Board of Directors. 

Sec. 3. In case any member shall cease to be the owner, or part 
owner, of the newspaper specified in his certificate of membership; or 
shall cease to be an executive officer of a corporation, limited liability 
company, or joint stock or other association which is the owner of the 
newspaper specified in his certificate of membership, he shall ipso facto, 
and without action by this Corporation, cease to be a member, and he 
shall no longer enjoy any of the privileges of the Corporation. He may, 
however, in that case (provided that he is not then under process of 
discipline for violation of any By-Law, rule or regulation of the Corpora- 
tion) assign his certificate of membership to any other owner or part 
owner or executive officer of the corporation, limited liability company 
or joint stock or other association which is the owner of such newspaper, 
who shall thereupon become a member upon signing the roll of members, 
and assenting to the By-Laws, and, even without such assignment, 
such other executive officer, owner or part owner, thereupon shall become 
entitled to membership, and upon filing the certificate or satisfactory 
proof that he is such officer, owner or part owner, hereinbefore men- 
tioned, and upon signing the roll of members, and assenting to the By- 
Laws, he shall at once become and be a member with all the privileges 
and subject to all the duties of membership, provided, however, that his 
predecessor was not, at the time when he ceased to be a member, under 
any process of discipline for violation of any By-Law, rule or regulation 
of this Corporation. In case of the death of any member who is the 
sole owner of the newspaper specified in his certificate of membership 
his legal representatives may assign his certificate of membership to his 
successor in the ownership of said newspaper who shall thereupon be- 
come a member upon signing the roll of members and assenting to the 
By-Laws. In case of the death of any member who is the part owner 
of the newspaper specified in his certificate of membership a co-owner of 
said newspaper shall be entitled to succeed to his membership upon 
signing the roll of members and assenting to the By-Laws. 

Sec. 4. When a change shall be made in the ownership of any news- 
paper for which a member of this Corporation is entitled to receive a 
news service, the member may transfer his certificate of membership 
with his newspaper, and the new owner shall be constituted a member 

339 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

by virtue of such assignment upon complying with the requirements 
prescribed by the next succeeding article of these By-Laws. 

Sec. 5. Whenever the name of any newspaper mentioned in any 
membership certificate shall be changed in any respect, the member 
holding such certificate shall thereupon give written notice of the change 
to the Secretary and shall return his certificate of membership to be 
cancelled, whereupon a new certificate in like terms shall be issued, 
designating the newspaper by its new name. 

Sec. 6. All rights and interest of any member in the property and 
privileges of the Corporation shall cease with the termination of his 
membership. 

Sec. 7. Every member shall be eligible to election and to enjoy 
the privileges of membership, solely by virtue of his relation to the 
newspaper named in his certificate of membership, and shall be held 
responsible for any violation of the By-Laws by himself or by any other 
person connected with such newspaper to the same extent that he would 
have been responsible had the violation been committed by him per- 
sonally. 

ARTICLE III 

ADMISSION OF MEMBERS 

Section i. Members may be elected by the affirmative vote of not 
less than four-fifths of all the members of the Corporation at any regular 
meeting of the members of the Corporation or at a special meeting called 
for that purpose. Such votes may be cast in person or by proxy. 

Sec. 2. Members may also be elected by the Board of Directors, 
when no meeting of the members of the Corporation is in session, pro- 
vided that whenever any member of the Corporation is entitled as 
hereinafter specified to protest against election of any new member 
by the Board of Directors, the Board shall have no power to elect such 
new member unless it shall have received a waiver in writing of such 
right of protest from all members entitled thereto, but no right of protest 
shall be held to prevent the Board of Directors from electing to member- 
ship the owner, part owner or executive officer of any corporation, 
limited liability company, joint stock or other association, which is the 
owner of any newspaper which was entitled to a service of news under 
an existing contract with The Associated Press (of Illinois), on the 
13th day of September, 1900. 

Sec. 3. When any person shall have ceased to be a member and his 
successor shall have become entitled to membership as provided in the 
last preceding article, such successor, upon filing with the Secretary 
proper proof that he is entitled to membership, and signing the roll 
of members and in writing assenting to the By-Laws, shall forthwith be- 
come and be a member, and be entitled to all the privileges and subject to 
all the duties and obligations of membership, and the Board of Directors 
at the next meeting held thereafter shall formally elect such successor 
and ratify his admission as a member. 

Sec. 4. A person elected or entitled to become a member in any of 
the ways hereinbefore provided, shall not be admitted to membership, 

340 



APPENDIX 

nor shall he be a member, nor shall he be entitled to any of the rights or 
privileges of membership until, either in person or by proxy duly con- 
stituted in writing, he shall have signed the roll of members and in 
writing shall have assented to the By-Laws and agreed to be bound 
thereby and by any amendments thereto, which may be thereafter 
regularly adopted. 

Sec. 5. To each member there shall be issued a certificate of member- 
ship signed by the President and by the Secretary of this Corporation, 
and bearing its seal. The certificate shall designate the newspaper for 
which the member shall be entitled to receive the news report of this 
Corporation, until he shall cease to be a member or until his right shall 
be suspended or terminated under the By-Laws; it shall specify the 
language in which the newspaper is to be printed ; whether it is a morn- 
ing or an afternoon newspaper, and the place of its publication ; it shall 
state whether the member is to receive a day or a night report ; it shall 
state the extent and nature of the member's right of protest, if such 
right shall have been accorded to him under the By-Laws as herein- 
after set forth ; it shall state the obligation of the member to furnish the 
news of a prescribed district, and to pay the regular weekly dues and 
other assessments as they may be, from time to time, fixed by the Board 
of Directors; it shall state that the holder thereof has assented to and 
is in all respects subject to and bound by the By-Laws; in other respects 
it shall be in such form and shall contain such provisions as shall be 
prescribed by the Board of Directors ; it shall not be transferable except 
to the extent and in the way hereinbefore provided. 

Sec. 6. The members of this Corporation may, by an affirmative 
vote of seven-eighths of all the members, confer upon a member (with 
such limitations as may be at the time prescribed) a right of protest against 
the admission of new members by the Board of Directors. The right 
of protest, within the limits specified at the time it is conferred, shall 
empower the member holding it to demand a vote of the members of 
the Corporation on all applications for the admission of new members 
within the district for which it is conferred except as provided in Section 
2 of this Article. 

Sec. 7. If a member having a right of protest makes a waiver, sub- 
ject to specified conditions, such waiver shall be effective only as stated 
therein. 

ARTICLE IV 

MEETINGS OF MEMBERS 

Section i. The annual meeting of the members of The Associated 
Press shall be held in the City of New York, at eleven o'clock a.m. 
on the Tuesday preceding the fourth Thursday in April of each year, for 
the election of Directors and such other business as may be presented. 

Sec. 2. Special meetings of the members shall be called by the Presi- 
dent and Secretary upon the order of the Board of Directors or the Execu- 
tive Committee, or whenever a request in writing therefor shall be 
received by the Secretary bearing the signatures of fifty of the members 
of the Corporation. No business shall be transacted at a special meeting 
except such as may be embraced in the call therefor. 

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"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Sec. 3. The Secretary shall give notice of all meetings of the members 
by mailing to each member at his given address a written or printed 
notice stating the time and place of meeting, and the business to be con- 
sidered, if a special meeting. Such notices shall be mailed thirty days 
before the annual meeting, and fifteen days before special meetings. 
Special meetings may, however, be held for any purpose, without notice, 
at any time when all the members are present or duly represented by 
proxy. 

Sec. 4. A member may be represented at any meeting by a properly 
authorized proxy who shall file a lawful power of attorney with the 
Secretary. No salaried officer or employee of the Corporation shall hold 
a proxy or vote upon the same. 

Sec. 5. To constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, at 
least a majority of the members must be present either in person or by 
proxy, except as otherwise provided by Section 25 of the General Cor- 
poration Law of the State of New York in the case of special elections of 
Directors. A minority may adjourn from time to time until a quorum 
shall be present. 

ARTICLE V 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

Section i . The affairs of the Corporation shall be managed by fifteen 
Directors, at least two of whom shall be residents of the State of New 
York. 

Sec. 2. Each Director shall be a member of this Corporation, and any 
Director who shall cease to be so qualified shall thereby cease to be a 
Director. 

Sec. 3. The six Directors to hold office until the first annual meeting 
of the members of this Corporation shall be those named in the Certificate 
of Incorporation. The Directors elected at such first annual meeting 
shall forthwith divide themselves by lot into three classes of equal 
number. The Directors of the first class shall hold office until the 
first annual meeting after their election. The Directors of the second 
class shall hold office until the second annual meeting after their election, 
and those of the third class shall hold office until the third annual meeting 
after their election. 

Sec. 4. At each annual meeting the members and those entitled to 
vote upon bonds, as hereinafter provided, shall elect Directors to suc- 
ceed those whose terms expire at such meeting, and also to fill any 
vacancies in the Board of Directors which may have occurred since their 
last annual meeting. At each annual meeting after the first, the Directors 
elected to fill the places of those whose terms have expired, shall be 
elected for a term of three years, and Directors shall in all cases continue 
in office until their successors are elected. 

Sec. 5. The Board of Directors shall, in addition to the powers else- 
where granted by the By-Laws, or otherwise conferred by law, have 
power to make contracts; to fill vacancies in their own number until 
the next annual meeting; to elect and remove officers and agents; to 
engage and discharge employees; to fix the compensation of officers, 

342 



APPENDIX 

agents and employees; to borrow money; to issue bonds; to authorize 
a mortgage or mortgages; to expend the money of the Corporation 
for its lawful purposes, and to do all acts, not inconsistent with the 
Certificate of Incorporation, or the By-Laws, which it may deem for 
the best interests of the Corporation, and in general shall have the con- 
trol and management of all the affairs of the Corporation, except as 
otherwise provided in the By-Laws. The votes of a majority of all the 
Directors shall be required to elect or remove an officer. 

Sec. 6. The Board of Directors shall annually appoint an Executive 
Committee of not less than five of its own number, who shall hold office 
for one year or during the pleasure of the Board and shall have the 
same powers as the Board except the powers in respect to the election 
and discipline of members as specified in Articles III and X of these 
By-Laws. The Executive Committee shall keep a full record of its acts 
and proceedings, and report all action taken by it to the next meeting 
of the Board. Vacancies therein shall be filled by the Board of Directors. 

Sec. 7. The Board of Directors shall annually appoint an auditing 
committee of not less than two persons, not of its own number, to ex- 
amine the accounts of the Corporation. 

Sec. 8. The Board of Directors from time to time may, by resolution, 
appoint other committees for special purposes designating their duties 
and powers. 

Sec. 9. The Board of Directors shall make a report of all its doings 
and of the affairs of the Corporation for each fiscal year, a copy of which 
shall be sent to each member at least twenty days prior to each annual 
meeting. Such fiscal year shall end on December 31st in each year. 
The Board of Directors shall also cause to be mailed to each member a 
report of the proceedings of each meeting of the Corporation and of the 
Board of Directors as soon after the holding of such meeting as practicable. 

Sec. 10. The Board of Directors shall have power to adopt a corporate 
seal and alter the same at its pleasure. 

Sec. 1 1 . The Board of Directors shall hold, at the City of New York, 
a meeting on the day preceding the annual meeting of the members, and 
also another meeting for the election of officers and for other purposes, 
on the day succeeding the annual meeting of the members. It shall fix, 
by resolution from time to time, the dates of the other regular meetings 
of the Board, of which there shall be not less than two, in every year, 
in addition to the two herein provided for. Special meetings of the 
Board may be called by the President or any three Directors. Notice 
of all meetings shall be given by telegraphing or by mailing a notice there- 
of to each Director at least five days before the date of the meeting, 
which notice shall be sent either by the Secretary, the President or the 
Directors calling the meeting. A majority of the Board shall constitute 
a quorum, but in case a quorum shall not be present a minority may 
adjourn from time to time until a quorum shall be obtained. The 
meetings of the Board of Directors — except as hereinbefore provided — 
shall be held either in the City of New York, or elsewhere, as may be 
specified in the resolutions of the Board fixing the dates of regular meet- 
ings, and in the notices calling special meetings. 

Sec. 12. The Board of Directors, from time to time, by resolution 

343 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

may provide for all matters in respect to which no provision is made 
by these By-Laws. 



ARTICLE VI 

OFFICERS 

Section i. The officers of the Corporation shall be a President, a 
First Vice-President, a Second Vice-President, a Secretary, an Assistant 
Secretary, and a Treasurer, who shall be elected annually by ballot by 
the Board of Directors at its first meeting after the annual meeting of 
members. The President shall be selected from among the Directors; 
the Vice-Presidents shall be selected from the membership of the Cor- 
poration; the other officers need not be members of the Corporation. 

Sec. 2. All officers shall hold their respective offices for one year after 
their election and until their successors are elected and qualified, unless 
removed by the Board of Directors. 

Sec. 3. The President shall preside over all meetings of the members 
and Board of Directors at which he may be present, and shall exercise 
general supervision and control over the affairs of the Corporation, 
subject to the direction of the Board. 

Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of the First Vice-President, in case of the 
absence of the President, or his inability to act, to exercise all his powers 
and discharge all his duties; in case of the absence or disability of both 
the President and First Vice-President, it shall be the duty of the Second 
Vice-President to exercise all the powers and discharge all the duties of 
the President; and in case of the absence or disability of the President, 
the First Vice-President and the Second Vice-President, a President 
pro tempore shall be chosen by the Board. 

Sec. 5. The Secretary shall attend all meetings of the members, of the 
Board of Directors and of the Executive Committee, and shall keep a 
true record of the proceedings thereof; he shall cause to be kept in the 
office of the Corporation all contracts, leases, assignments, other instru- 
ments in writing, and documents not properly belonging to the office 
of Treasurer; he shall execute all certificates of membership, bonds, 
contracts and other instruments authorized to be made or executed by 
or on behalf of the Corporation; provided, that all instruments requiring 
the corporate seal shall also be executed by the President or a Vice- 
President. He shall also perform such other duties as may be assigned 
to him by the Board of Directors. 

Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of the Assistant Secretary, in case of the 
absence of the Secretary, or his inability to act, to exercise all his powers 
and discharge all his duties. 

Sec. 7. The Treasurer shall receive all moneys of the Corporation, 
safely keep the same, and pay out such sums as may be authorized by the 
Board of Directors. He shall give a bond in such amount as the Board 
may require. 

Sec. 8. The officers may receive such compensation as may from time 
to time be prescribed by the Board of Directors. 

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APPENDIX 

ARTICLE VII 

RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF MEMBERS 

Section i. At all meetings of the members of the Corporation, each 
member may cast one vote by virtue of his membership, and such ad- 
ditional votes as he may be entitled to cast as the holder of bonds issued 
by the Corporation. 

Sec. 2. Each member shall be entitled, upon compliance with the 
provisions of the By-Laws, to receive a service of news for the purpose 
of publication in the newspaper specified in his certificate of membership, 
and for that purpose only. The nature and extent of the news service 
to be so received by the member shall be determined by the Board of 
Directors, upon his admission, and the initial dues or assessment shall 
be fixed at the same time and by the same authority, subject, however, 
to change as hereinafter provided in Article IX. 

Sec. 3. The nature and extent of the news service to any member 
may be changed from time to time by the Board of Directors; provided, 
that this section must not be construed to give the Board of Directors 
authority to grant a news service in violation of the right of protest as 
hereinbefore specified, or to omit the news sendee to any member except 
for cause as provided in these By-Laws. 

Sec. 4. The news service of this Corporation shall be furnished only 
to the members thereof, or to the newspapers represented by them and 
specified in their certificates of membership. 

Sec. 5. A member shall publish the news of The Associated Press 
only in the newspaper, the language, and the place specified in his cer- 
tificate of membership and he shall not permit any other use to be made 
of the news furnished by the Corporation to him or to the newspaper 
which he represents. 

Sec. 6. The time limits for the receipt and publication of news by 
members shall be (standard time in all cases at the place of publication) 
as follows : Morning papers to receive not later than 9 a. m. and to 
publish not earlier than 9 p. if., except that for editions to be circulated 
only outside of the city of publication not earlier than the following morn- 
ing, morning papers may publish not earlier than 5 p. m. and that Sunday 
editions so published may be circulated in the city of publication after 
8 p. m. Saturday; afternoon papers to receive not later than 6 p. m. 
and to publish not earlier than 9 a. m., the service to afternoon papers 
between 4 p. li. and 6 p. m. to be of bulletin character; provided, that the 
Board of Directors may authorize that upon extraordinary occasions 
The Associated Press despatches may be used in extra editions or for 
bulletins outside of the hours named. 

Sec. 7. By the vote of a majority of the Board of Directors, a member 
may be permitted to withdraw upon payment of all dues, assessments 
and other obligations, and upon the surrender and cancellation of his 
certificate of membership and upon such other terms as the Board 
of Directors may fix. If any member shall apply to the Board of Directors 
for permission to withdraw, and the same shall be refused, he may never- 
theless give written notice to the Secretary of his intention to withdraw, 
and six months after such notice shall have been received, he may termi- 

345 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

nate his membership upon payment of all dues, assessments and other 
obligations to the date of his final withdrawal. 

Sec. 8. No news furnished to the Corporation by a member shall be 
supplied by the Corporation to any other member publishing a news- 
paper within the district which the Board of Directors shall have described 
in defining the obligations of such member to furnish news to the Cor- 
poration. 

ARTICLE VIII 

DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF MEMBERS 

Section i . Each member shall comply with all the provisions of the 
By-Laws and such amendments as may be adopted from time to time. 

Sec. 2. During the term of his membership or until his right to the 
receipt of the news report of this Corporation shall be terminated in the 
manner hereinafter provided for, each member shall pay all dues, assess- 
ments and other obligations as the same may be fixed and apportioned 
by the Board of Directors. 

Sec. 3. Each member shall take the news service of the Corporation 
and publish the news regularly in whole or in part in the newspaper 
named in his Certificate of Membership. He shall also furnish to the 
Corporation all the news of his district, the area of which shall be deter- 
mined by the Board of Directors. 

Sec. 4. In places where the Corporation has a correspondent, the 
members shall afford to such correspondent convenient access at all 
times to the news in their possession, which they are required to furnish 
as aforesaid, and in places where the Corporation has no correspondent 
the members shall supply the news required to be furnished by them 
in such manner as may be required by the Board of Directors. 

Sec. 5. The news which a member shall furnish as herein required 
shall be all such news as is spontaneous in its origin, but shall not include 
any news that is not spontaneous in its origin, or which has originated 
through deliberate and individual enterprise on the part of such member 
or of the newspaper specified in his certificate of membership. 

Sec. 6. No member shall furnish, or permit any one in his employ 
or connected with the newspaper specified in his certificate of member- 
ship to furnish, to any person who is not a member, the news of the 
Corporation in advance of publication, or to another member any news 
received from the Corporation which the Corporation is itself debarred 
from furnishing to such member, nor conduct his business in such a 
manner that the news furnished by the Corporation may be communi- 
cated to any person, firm, corporation, or association not entitled to 
receive the same. 

Sec. 7. No member shall furnish, or permit any one to furnish, to 
any one not a member of this Corporation, the news which he is required 
by the By-Laws to supply to this Corporation. 

Sec. 8. Members shall print in their newspapers such credit to the 
Corporation, or to any paper or other source from which news may be 
obtained, as shall be required, from time to time, by the Board of 
Directors. 

346 



APPENDIX 

Sec. 9. No member shall anticipate the publication of any document 
of public concern, confided to this Corporation for use on a stipulated 
date, however said member may have secured said document. 

ARTICLE IX 

APPORTIONMENT OF EXPENSES 

Section i. The cost of collecting, exchanging and transmitting the 
news service, as well as all other expenses of the Corporation, shall be 
apportioned among the members by the Board of Directors, in such 
manner as it may deem equitable, and the Board shall levy assessments 
upon the members therefor. The Board of Directors may change such 
apportionment and assessment, from time to time, and may also levy 
assessments upon the members in order to accumulate a surplus fund 
for emergency purposes, provided that any increase of assessment 
exceeding 50 per cent, shall require the affirmative vote of two-thirds 
of all the Directors. There shall be no right to question the action of 
the Board of Directors in respect to such apportionment or assessments, 
either by appeal to a meeting of members, or otherwise, but the action 
of the Directors, when taken, shall be final and conclusive. 

Sec. 2. All regular assessments levied against members shall be 
payable weekly in advance, and the Treasurer or other authorized agent 
of the Corporation shall draw on each member therefor. Such assess- 
ments shall be paid promptly, and, if any assessment draft shall be unpaid 
at the end of three days after presentation, a penalty of 10 per cent, 
thereon shall be added thereto, and it shall be the duty of the Secretary 
thereupon to notify the member in default that the news service will be 
discontinued at the expiration of two weeks from the date of the notice, 
unless all overdue assessments and penalties shall have been paid to the 
Treasurer of the Corporation before that date, and, if the same are not 
so paid, such news service shall thereupon be discontinued. 

ARTICLE X 
fines, suspensions, etc. 

Section i. When the Board of Directors shall decide that a member 
has violated any of the provisions of the By-Laws, it may, by a two- 
thirds vote of all the Directors, impose upon such member a fine not 
exceeding one thousand dollars, or suspend his privileges of membership 
or present him for expulsion as hereinafter provided, or it may both sus- 
pend his privileges and present him for expulsion. Before any such ac- 
tion shall be taken, however, it shall give to the member affected an 
opportunity to be heard in his own defense upon ten days' notice in 
writing of the time and place at which he will be so heard. 

Sec. 2. When the privileges of a member are suspended, his news 
service shall be discontinued, and notice of the suspension shall be sent 
at once by the Secretary to all the members. Any order of suspension 
may be repealed by the affirmative vote of a majority of the whole 

347 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Board of Directors, and notice thereof shall be sent at once by the 
Secretary to all the members. 

Sec. 3. The term for which a member may be suspended by the 
Board of Directors shall not extend beyond the next annual meeting 
of the members. 

Sec. 4. Any member so suspended may, at his option, retain his 
membership, and, at the expiration of the period for which he shall 
have been suspended, or upon the repeal of the suspension as herein- 
before provided for, he shall again become entitled to receive the news 
service as called for in his Certificate of Membership, or such member 
may withdraw from the Corporation upon paying all dues, assessments 
and other obligations then due or incurred and unpaid. 

Sec. 5. The action of the Board of Directors on any of the foregoing 
matters mentioned in this article shall be final and conclusive. No 
member shall have any right to question the same. 

ARTICLE XI 

EXPULSION OF MEMBERS 

Section i. The members of the Corporation, at any regular meeting, 
or at a special meeting called for that purpose, shall have the right 
to expel a member for any violation of these By-Laws, or for any con- 
duct on his part, or on the part of any one in his employ or in the employ 
of or connected with the newspaper designated in his certificate of 
membership, which in its absolute discretion it shall deem of such a 
character as to be prejudicial to the interests and welfare of the Corpora- 
tion and its members, or to justify such expulsion. The action of the 
members of the Corporation in such regard shall be final and there 
shall be no right of appeal against or review of such action. 

Sec. 2. Before the Corporation may entertain a motion to expel a 
member there shall be a formal presentation of such member either by 
the order of the Board of Directors after a hearing as hereinbefore pro- 
vided, or through a written notification signed by five members. The 
member affected shall have a right to be heard in his own behalf before 
the motion to expel is put to a vote. 

Sec. 3. If a member is to be presented for expulsion without previous 
hearing by the Board of Directors the notice of presentation shall be 
filed with the Secretary of the Corporation at least three weeks prior to 
the meeting of the members at which action is to be taken, and the 
Secretary shall forward a certified copy to the member affected within 
three days after receiving such notice. 

Sec. 4. When a member shall be presented by the order of the Board 
of Directors he may be expelled by the affirmative vote of a majority 
of all the votes cast on the question. When a member shall be presented 
through a notification signed by five members and without the order 
of the Board of Directors, he may be expelled only by the affirmative 
vote of four-fifths of all the members. 

Sec. 5. A member who has been expelled shall be eligible for re- 
admission only upon the terms and conditions applicable to new members. 

348 



APPENDIX 

ARTICLE XII 

BONDS 

Section i. This Corporation shall have power to borrow money, 
and to make and issue bonds as evidences of indebtedness therefor, and 
to secure the same by mortgage uponi ts property; provided, that such 
bonds shall not be issued to an amount exceeding the aggregate sum 
of $150,000. 

Sec. 2. The Board of Directors, at any regular meeting or at any 
special meeting called for that purpose, may authorize the execution 
and issue of such bonds in such amounts not exceeding the aggregate 
principal sum of $150,000, to such persons including themselves, pay- 
able at such times and with such rate of interest and in such form as it 
may deem advisable, provided, that every bond, so issued, shall contain a 
provision that the Corporation shall have the right to redeem the same 
at its face value, with the interest due or accrued thereon, whenever it 
shall come into the possession of any one not a member of this Corpora- 
tion. And it shall be the duty of the Board of Directors, whenever 
bonds are presented for registration in the name of any one not a member 
of this Association, to exercise the right of redemption herein provided 
for and pay for such bonds out of any funds in the Treasury available 
for the purpose or out of an assessment to be levied upon members in 
proportion to the weekly assessment paid by them. The Board of 
Directors may make such provision for the registration of such bonds 
as it may deem best. The Board of Directors may also authorize the 
execution of a mortgage upon the property of the Corporation to secure 
the payment of such bonds. 

Sec. 3. The registered owner and holder of any such bonds may file 
with the Secretary a waiver of any claim to interest on the bonds held 
by him, and he shall thereupon become entitled at any meeting of the 
members of this Corporation for the election of Directors to cast one 
vote, either in person or by proxy, for Directors upon each $25 of such 
bonds registered in his name for not less than twenty days prior to such 
meeting, provided that no bondholder shall have the right to vote upon 
more than $1,000 of said bonds, and shall not have the right to vote 
on any bond that shall have been called for redemption at any time 
before such election. 

ARTICLE XIII 

PUBLICATION 

Section i. The publication required to be made by every member 
shall be that of a bona fide newspaper, continuously issued, as specified 
in the Membership Certificate, to a list of genuine paid subscribers. A 
publication conducted for the purpose of preserving a membership, 
and not for public sale and distribution, shall not be or be regarded as a 
sufficient compliance with the By-Laws. The irregular publication of 
his newspaper shall be sufficient ground for suspension of a member, in 
the discretion of the Board of Directors. 

349 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Sec. 2. A Membership Certificate which authorizes publication on 
seven days in a week shall be held to be fully complied with by publi- 
cation on six days, and such cessation of publication on one day shall not 
affect the member's right to receive and publish the news service on 
seven days whenever he may elect so to do. 

ARTICLE XIV 

DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY 

Section i . Neither the Corporation nor its Officers nor Directors nor 
any of them shall in any event be liable to a member for any loss or 
damage arising by reason of the publication of any of the news received 
by him from the Corporation, or by reason of his suspension or expulsion, 
and his signature to the roll of members and assent to the By-Laws shall 
constitute a waiver of any such claim. 

ARTICLE XV 

AMENDMENTS TO BY-LAWS 

Section i. These By-Laws may be amended only by the Board of 
Directors at any regular meeting of said Board by an affirmative vote of 
two-thirds of all the Directors of the Corporation, but no amendment 
shall become operative or take effect until the same shall have been 
recommended or ratified by a vote of four-fifths of all the members of 
the Corporation at a meeting, regularly convened. 



resolutions of the board of directors 

Resolved, That this Board define the word "publication," as used 
in Art. VIII, Sec. 9 of the By-Laws, to mean the relinquishment of the 
control of the sheets or any of them, by the publisher, either by sale 
or by deposit in the post-office, or by transfer in any way to hands not 
directly controlled by the said publisher, so that if any copies, printed, 
or in any other form, shall be permitted to go outside the office of the 
newspaper intrusted with an advance copy of a public or other docu- 
ment, it shall be deemed a violation of the By-Laws. (May 14, 1902.) 

Resolved, That the news report of The Associated Press should compre- 
hend such news only as is of general interest and must not include in any 
territory any specific variety of news not desired by a majority of the 
members receiving a report on the wires affected. (May 14, 1902.) 

Resolved, That the transmission of editorial opinions upon political 
or partisan matters is contrary to the policy of The Associated Press. 
(May 14, 1902.) 

Resolved, That it is contrary to the policy of The Associated Press 
that any salaried employee of The Associated Press serve any newspaper 
as a special correspondent. (May 14, 1902.) 

Resolved, That in the appointment of the Auditing Committee pro- 
vided for under the By-Laws, each of the several Advisory Boards shall 
nominate to the Board of Directors on or before the first day of May 
of each year one member of the Association, not a Director, as a member 

350 



APPENDIX 

of said committee, and the persons thus nominated, when appointed 
by the Board, shall have full access to all books, accounts, vouchers and 
other information appertaining to the financial administration of The 
Associated Press, and shall prepare therefrom such report to the President 
as will verify the exact condition of said finances; which report shall be 
submitted with other reports at the annual meeting of The Associated 
Press. (May 14, 1902.) 

Resolved, That hereafter no person shall be appointed on the Auditing 
Committee who is not a member of The Associated Press. (Dec. 11, 
1901.) 

Resolved, That the examinations thus provided for shall be made at 
the offices of The Associated Press in the City of New York, and each 
member of the Auditing Committee shall receive as compensation his 
actual traveling expenses, and also the sum of $10 per diem for each 
day engaged in said examination. (May 14, 1902.) 

Resolved, That it is the duty, of the General Manager, and of all subor- 
dinate employees, to report promptly any violation of the By-Laws or 
of the regulations prescribed by the Board of Directors. (May 14, 1902.) 

Resolved, That the placing of an operator of any other news-gathering 
or distributing association in the office of an Associated Press paper is a 
step which establishes a condition which will be likely to permit the 
news of this Corporation to be disclosed to unauthorized persons and so en- 
dangers the inviolability of the news service of The Associated Press, 
that it is seriously prejudicial to the interest and welfare of this Corpora- 
tion and its members, and the Board of Directors, by authority of the 
By-Laws, hereby forbid any member of The Associated Press from so 
placing an operator of any other news-gathering or distributing asso- 
ciation in his office or elsewhere in any building partially occupied by 
the offices of an Associated Press paper, where the employees of the 
paper and representatives of the other news-gathering organization may 
come in contact, or in any other manner so conduct his business that the 
news furnished to him by The Associated Press, or the news that the 
member is obliged to supply to The Associated Press exclusively, may 
be communicated to any person, firm, Corporation or Association not 
entitled to receive the same, and that the executive officers of the Asso- 
ciation be directed to use all necessary and proper means for the enforce- 
ment of this order. (Feb. 20, 1901 — Amended April 26, 1917.) 

Resolved, That the violation of a release order by one member does not 
justify the publication by any other member of a document confided 
to this Corporation in advance of the time of publication stated in said 
document. (Sept. 18, 1902.) 

Resolved, 1, That where a member, representing a corporation, owning 
a morning and an evening newspaper, published in the same city, both 
papers taking The Associated Press service, refuses to accept in advance 
of release a document or copy of a speech, that the same document or 
speech shall not be tendered to the member representing the other papers 
owned by the said corporation. 

2. That when any member of this Association refuses to accept a 
public document or a copy of a speech given in confidence in advance 
of release, that the source from which said public document or copy 
of speech was given into the possession of The Associated Press be 
notified. 

3. That where any member refuses to accept any advance document 
when first offered, said document shall not thereafter be furnished said 
member, until after said advance document is released for publication. 
(Dec. 11, 1907.) 

Resolved, That meetings of the Board of Directors of The Associated 

351 



"M. E. S." — HIS BOOK 

Press shall be held in the City of New York in the month of April, both 
the day before and the day succeeding the Annual Meeting, on the 
first Wednesday in October, and on the second Wednesday in December. 
(Sept. 19, 1907.) 

Resolved, At points where morning papers are entitled to copy of the 
day report the delivery of the day report should be made to such morning 
papers at 3 p. m., and not before. At points where afternoon papers 
are entitled to copy of the night report, delivery of that report to such 
afternoon papers should be made at 5 a. m., and not before. (Sept. 21, 

1905.) 

Resolved, That it is the duty of each member of The Associated Press 
to co-operate with the management to secure the most expeditious 
delivery possible to all members of any special emergency bulletin. 
(Dec. 13, 191 1.) 

Resolved, That the public display of news upon bulletin boards at 
the main office or branch offices of a newspaper in its city of publication, 
as defined in its certificate of membership, does not constitute a violation 
of the By-Law which provides that no member shall furnish the news 
of The Associated Press in advance of publication to any person who 
is not a member of The Associated Press. (April 21, 1913 — Amended 
Dec. 14, 1916.) 

Resolved, That the publication of any matter improperly designated 
by commission or omission as Associated Press matter, hurtful to the 
character and repute of the service, shall be regarded as conduct preju- 
dicial to the interests of the Association, and the member so offending 
shall be cited to appear before the Board of Directors for violation 
of the By-Laws. (April 22, 19 14.) 

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Board of Directors that the bulletin 
service as referred to in the amendment to the By-Laws adopted to-day 
by the Board of Directors means that the service so furnished between 
the hours of 4 p. M. and 6 P. m. shall contain nothing but brief, skeleton 
summaries of news of high importance, including sporting. (April 19, 

I9I5-) 

Resolved, That, pursuant to the authority conferred upon the Board 
of Directors by Section 8, Article VIII, of the By-Laws, it is ordered that 
members shall retain in The Associated Press news service, as printed 
in their newspapers, such credit to The Associated Press as appears in the 
news service transmitted, and that members shall print such credit at all 
times as the management of the organization may direct. (April 26, 
1917.) 










JOSEPH E. SHARKEY 

Tokio Bureau 
S. B. CONGER 

Berlin Bureau 



WALTER C. WHIFFEN 
Petrograd Bureau 
WM. H. REITHLE 
The Veteran of the Service — i 



LATER CHANGES IN MEMBERSHIP OF 
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

(March 15 to April 10, 1918) 

ADDITIONS 

California — Julius Ebel, Santa Maria Times. 

Kentucky — J. R. Lemon, Mayfield Messenger. 

New Mexico — S. L. Perry, Carlsbad Current. 

Texas — S. R. Whitley, Jacksonville Progress; G. E. Watford, Lufkin 
News; N. P. Houx, Mexia News; O. M. Gibbs, Nacogdoches 
Daily Sentinel; Ed. S. Blackshear, Navasota Examiner- Review; 
C. E. Palmer, Texarkana Four States Press. 

CHANGES IN MEMBERSHIP 

Mexico — Mexico City Pueblo— Gregorio Velesquez succeeds Jose" Y 

Solorzano. 
New Mexico — Albuquerque Herald — H. B. Hening succeeds George S. 

Valliant. 

CHANGES IN NAMES OF PAPERS 

Pennsylvania — Harrisburg Telegraph & Star Independent changed to 
Harrisburg Telegraph. 

Utah — Salt Lake Herald-Republican changed to Herald-Republican- 
Telegram; Salt Lake Telegram changed to Telegram-Herald- 
Republican. 

DISCONTINUANCES OF MEMBERSHIP 

Florida — T. E. Fitzgerald, Daytona Hotel News; Chris O. Codrington, 

Deland News. 
Illinois — James R. Cowley, Freeport Journal-Standard. 
Ohio — Henry C. Vortriede, Toledo Express. 

ERRATA 

The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun and the Centralia (Wash.) Chronicle should 
bear the ^ mark indicating evening papers having also Sunday-morning 
editions. 



INDEX 



Abandonment of the A. P. mem- 
bership, 274; also see By-Laws. 

Acta Diurna, 286. 

Acton, Lord, on public and private 
morals, 201. 

Adams, Abijah, case of, 290, 291. 

Adams, John, 290. 

Adams, John Quincy, 261. 

Ade, George, 16. 

Advertising, ethics of, 19, 232, 233. 

Agence Balcanique, 105. 

Agence Havas, 29, 103, 104, 117, 
181. 

Agence Turque, 170. 

Alaska, cable to Asia, 176; news 
of, 183. 

Alaskan Commission, report of, 113. 

Alexander, Czar, frees serfs, 257. 

Alexander, King of Serbia, assassi- 
nation of, 170, 171. 

"American Newspaper, The," ad- 
dress by M. E. S., 209 et seq. 

Ames, Fisher, on newspapers, 218, 
219. 

Ancona Note, how transmitted, 
186. 

Anonymity in A. P. service, 53, 207. 

Anthony, B. H., 307, 322. 

"A. P. and Its Maligners, The," 
address at Chautauqua by 
M. E. S., 200 et seq. 

Applications for membership in 
A. P., 31, 282; also see By-Laws. 

"Areopagitica," Milton, 208, 225, 
279, 289. 

Argentine newspapers, 208. 

Articles and Addresses by M. E. S., 
85 et seq. 

Assassination of King and Queen 
of Serbia, 170, 171; of Lincoln, 
8, 9; of McKinley, 113. 

Assessments in A. P., 102; also see 
By-Laws. 

Associated Press, The, answers by 
M. E. S. to criticisms, 273; his- 



tory of, 25, 91, 174 et seq.; 
Illinois corporation, 26, 179, 305 
et seq.; "Is the A. P. a Trust?" 
(address by F. W. Lehmann), 
76 et seq.; method of operation, 
108 et seq.; New York corpora- 
tion, 36 et seq.; Officers and 
Directors, List, 307 et seq. 

Associated Press, The, articles con- 
cerning, in Century Magazine, 91 
et seq. 

Atlantic Cable, 95, 176, 177, 270. 

Atlantic Monthly, article in, an- 
swered by M. E. S., 273 et seq. 

Atter, Walter, 171. 

Attorney-General of U. S., opinion 
in Sun case, 39, 40. 

Australian newspapers, 208. 

Ayme, American consul, reports 
Martinique disaster, 114, 115, 
116. 

Baker, Elbert H., 307, 310, 328; 

portrait. 
Ballentyne, John F., 7, 9. 
Baltimore Convention, 50, 203, 204. 
Bankers Club of Chicago, 24. 
Bar along Note, transmission of, 186. 
Barr, Albert J., 305, 307; portrait. 
Barrere, interview with, 129, 130. 
Beach, H. L., 161. 
Becket vs. Donaldson, 73. 
Beiliss trial, 222. 
Belo, Alfred H., 37, 295, 305, 307, 

337- 
Bennett, James Gordon, 93, 96, no, 

230. 
Bering Straits cable project, 176, 

177. 

Berlin, A. P. bureau at, 126, 134 
et seq.; visits of M. E. S. to, 134 
et seq. 

Bernadotte, John, 262. 

Bethmann-Hollweg speech, trans- 
mission of, 186. 



353 



INDEX 



Bible, printing forbidden, 250. 

Bilney, Thomas, 250. 

BirreU, Augustin, on Milton, 210, 
289. 

Black Plague, 81. 

Blaine, James G., defeated by 
Burchard speech, 108. 

Blake, Harry, 91. 

"Blazing the Trail," address at 
Grand Rapids, Mich., by M. E. 
S., 239. 

Board of Directors of A. P., 305 
et seq.; portraits. 

Bonds of A. P., 38; also see By- 
Laws. 

Boston Advertiser, 176. 

Boston Evening Journal, 274. 

Boston Globe, 98. 

Boston Herald, 101. 

Boston Traveler, 274. 

Bowles, Samuel, 209, 305, 307; 
portrait. 

Boynton, Chas. A., portrait. 

Bracket, Waite & Wilder, M. E. S. 
studies law with, 8. 

Bradford, William, 252, 253. 

Brewster, William, 252. 

Brickell, William D., 307; portrait. 

Bridgeport Post, 274. 

British colonial laws regarding prop- 
erty in news, 275. 

Brooklyn Eagle, 100. 

Browne, Robert, 251. 

Bryan, William Jennings, 50, 121. 

Bryce, James, on American news- 
papers, 209, 270. 

Burchard, "Rum, Romanism, and 
Rebellion" speech, 108. 

Bureaucracy, Russian, 259 et seq. 

Burnaby, Col. Fred., death of, 80. 

Business office control, 229, 230, 
232. 

Bussche-Haddenhausen, Baron von 
dem, 193 et seq. 

Butler, E. H., 305. 

By-Laws of The Associated Press, 
338 et seq. 

Cabaniss, H. H., 307. 

Cable, Atlantic, 95, 176, 177, 270. 

Calmette, Gaston, 211, 212. 

Cambon, Jules, 126, 127. 

Canadian news, 183. 

Canadian newspapers, 208. 

Carvalho, S. S., 305. 

Cass, Lewis, 268. 

Cassini, Count, 140, 141. 



Catholics, denunciation of A. P. by, 
124. 

Censorship, as a means of tyranny, 
277, 278; characteristics of, 185, 
186; in early U. S. history, 289, 
290; in Russia, 139 et seq.; of 
A. P. service by its members, 30, 
32, 42, 48, 124, 180, 206. 

Central America, news of, 183. 

Central News Agency, 98. 

Cervera fleet, destruction of, 160. 

Chamberlain, resignation of, 112, 

"3- 

Chautauqua as evidence of demand 

for information, 215. 
Cheating, Tomlinson essay on, 200. 
Chicago Board of Education, M. 

E. S. a member, 21. 
Chicago Chronicle, 274. 
Chicago Club, 24. 
Chicago Daily News, founded by 

M. E. S., 15; Victor F. Lawson 

joins, 17; morning edition, 17; 

principles of, 231 et seq. 
Chicago drainage canal, M. E. S. 

treasurer for, 23, 24. 
Chicago Evening Mail, M. E. S. 

editor of, 14; combined with 

Evening Post, 14, 15; Post and 

Mail absorbed by Daily News, 16. 
Chicago Freie Presse, 274. 
Chicago Herald, 14, 98. 
Chicago Inter-Ocean, revival of 

Chicago Republican, 13; M. E. 

S. managing editor, 13; suit 

against A. P., 33, 34, 101, 173, 

274. 
Chicago Record, 274. 
Chicago Republican, 9, 13. 
Chicago Times, 10, no, 274. 
Chicago Tribune, 7, 8. 
Chinese, early use of type by, 286. 
"Christian daily newspaper," 224. 
Christian Science Monitor, 16, 274. 
"Circular Church," Charleston, S. 

C, 254. 
Citizens Association of Chicago, 24. 
Civil Service Reform League of 

Chicago, 24. 
Clark, Charles Hopkins, 307, 310, 

315; portrait. 
Clark, Speaker Champ, 50, 203, 204. 
Cockerill, John A., 100. 
Code, press, 53, 94, 106, 107, 116 

et seq., 159. 
Coffee-houses as news centers, 91, 

175. 



354 



INDEX 



Coke, Chief Justice, 249. 

Coke, on tracing error, 202. 

Collier, Price, 214. 

Collier, William A., 305. 

Collier's Weekly, editorial in, an- 
swered by M. E. S., 279 et seq. 

Collins, Robert M., 161, 164; por- 
trait. 

Cologne Gazette, 208. 

Commercial Agency (Petrograd), 

Common carrier in news service, 35, 

79, 278. 
Competitors of A. P., 25, 40, 101. 
Conger, S. B., portrait. 
Constitution of Massachusetts on 

free press, 208, 225. 
Constitution, U. S., on free press, 

209, 225. 
Continental Telegraphen Compag- 

nie (see Wolff Agency), 29, 182. 
Conventions, political, method of 

reporting, 119 et seq. 
Cooper, Kent, 311; portrait. 
Co-operation in A. P., 3, 27, 30, 

37, 41, 55, 180, 183, 284. 
Copp, Arthur W., 161. 
Copyright, 42, 43, 73, 74 (see 

Property in News). 
Corporations and King's Charter, 

244. 
Correspondent of A. P., qualifica- 
tions for, in. 
Correspondenz Bureau, Vienna, 105. 
Cortelyou, George B., 113. 
Cortesi, Salvatore, 118, 134; por- 
trait. 
Cost of A. P. service, 102, 116, 160, 

184, 186. 
Cowles, Paul, 311; portrait. 
Cowles, W. H., 307, 310, 334; 

portrait. 
Craig, D. H., 93, 96, 177. 
Creighton, Sophia, mother of M. 

E. S., 7-8. 
Criticisms of A. P., M. E. S. replies 

to, 273 et seq. 
Cromwell, press under, 288. 
Crosby Opera House, Chicago, 12. 
Crown Prince of Germany, 137. 
Cuban insurrection, 159, 160. 
Cunard Line, as news carrier, 176. 
Curran, Philpot, on newspapers, 

208. 
Curtis, William E., 74. 
Cutter, Edgar T., 311; portrait. 
Czar of Russia, 145, 189, 260. 

3 



Dana, Charles A., 9, 96, 101, 230. 

Danchenko, A. P. correspondent, 
166. 

Dangers of A. P. correspondents, 
80, 159, 160, 162, 166 et seq. 

Degrees conferred upon M. E. S., 7. 

Delcasse, interview with, 127, 128, 
129. 

Democracy in A. P. management, 
27, 30, 32, 124, 284. 

Democracy in Russia, 256, 257. 

Denny, A. P. correspondent, ex- 
ploit of, 167. 

Denver Republican, 274. 

Despatch boats, 160, 165. 

des Planches, Signor Mayor, am- 
bassador of Italy to America, 131. 

De Tocqueville on American news- 
papers, 225. 

Detroit Free Press, 265, 269. 

de Young, M. H., 305, 307, 314; 
portrait. 

Diaz, Porfirio, 220. 

Diehl, Charles S., 160, 305, 307. 

Dillon, Dr. E. J., 200. 

Diplomacy, A. P. news as a factor 
in, 157, 158, 163, 171, 172. 

Directors, A. P. Board of, 305 et seq.; 
portraits. 

Distribution of A. P. news, 104 et 
seq. 

Divisions of A. P., administrative 
and news, 103, 105, 311. 

"Dooley, Philosopher," 16. 

Dougherty, William E., 15-16. 

Douglas, Stephen A., 268. 

Dow, William H., 307, 321. 

Draga, Queen of Servia, assassina- 
tion of, 170, 171. 

Driscoll, Frederick, 29, 41, 305. 

Duma, Russian, 257. 

Dunne, Peter Finley, 16. 

Dunning, John P., 109. 

Dunster, Henry, first president of 
Harvard, 281. 

Dutch as leaders in liberty, 240, 
252. 

Eaton, William D., 293. 
Editorial ethics, 207, 209, 231 et seq. 
Education of M. E. S., 7, 55. 
Egan, Martin, 161, 164, 165, 170, 

189. 
Elections, how reported, 122. 
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 

against press, 288. 
Elliott, Jackson S., 311; portrait. 

55 



INDEX 



Eminent domain, 35-37. 
Emperor of Germany, 134 et seq., 

189 et seq. 
English Press Association, 274. 
English spoken in Russian court, 

260. 
Entertainment in newspapers, 221. 
Estill, J. H., 307. 
Exchange of news with foreign 

agencies, 104. 
Exiles, return of, from Siberia, 258. 
Expenses of A. P. (see Cost of 

Service). 
Exploring expeditions, results of as 

property, 82. 

Fabri Agency, 105. 

Fahey, John H., 307, 322. 

Fay, Henry T., 37. 

Fellowship Club of Chicago, 24, 

297, 298. 
Field, Cyrus, 177, 228. 
Field, Eugene, 16, 17, 18. 
Field, Kate, 16. 

Fire, Chicago, 1871, 10, 12, 13. 
First American newspaper, 289. 
First Michigan newspaper, Cen- 
tennial address by M. E. S., 265 

et seq. 
Fiske, John, cited, 256. 
Fitch, John, inventor of steamboat, 

269. 
Flynn, John J., 16. 
Foreign service of A. P., 29, 45, 46, 

103, 104, 105, 125 et seq.; portraits. 
Forrest, Col. J. K. C, 13. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 254. 
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, 

M. E. S. speech at, 174. 
Freedom of the press and speech, 

207 et seq., 224 et seq., 288 et seq. 
Free press established in America, 

289 et seq. 
French news, 126, 127, 128, 129 

(see Havas Agency). 
Fulton, Robert, 269. 

Gavit, John Palmer — biographical 
sketch of M. E. S., 1-56 inclu- 
sive. 

Gazette — origin of name, 287. 

Genbu Maru, episode of, 168, 169. 

German news, 52, 126, 134 et seq. 

Gladstone on U. S. Constitution, 
268. 

Globe National Bank of Chicago, 
23 et seq. 



Glover, Rev. Joseph, 289. 

Gortschakofr", Prince, 263. 

Gossip, newspaper the vehicle of, 
270. 

Gould, Jay, 228. 

Government control of A. P., 35, 
277. 

Government control of newspapers, 
277, 278. 

Graham, George E., 161. 

Grant, General U. S., death re- 
ported, 109. 

Grasty, Charles H., 305, 307; por- 
trait. 

Greeley, Horace, 6, 7, 230. 

Greenwood, Grace, 16. 

Gregory, Attorney-General of U. S., 
decision by, 39-40. 

Grosscup, Judge Peter S., on Prop- 
erty in News, and tribute to 
M. E. S., 66 et seq. 

Guaranty Fund of A. P., 101. 

Hagerty, Chris, 167. 
Haldeman, W. N., 96, 294, 295. 
Hale, Dr. E. E., quoted, 201. 
Hale, Nathan, 92, 176. 
Halford, Elijah W., 13. 
Hallock, Gerard, 92. 
Halstead, Murat, 230. 
Hamilton, Andrew, 290. 
Hand, Judge A. N., decision of, 44. 
Handy, Moses P., memorial song 

by M. E. S., 298. 
Hanna, Mark, 123. 
Harper's Magazine on A. P., 283. 
Harriman — alleged meeting with 

Taft, 202, 203. 
Hartford Post, 30, 31, 274. 
Haskell, E. B., 307. 
Havas Agency, 29, 103, 104, 117, 

181. 
Hawaii, news of, 103. 
Hawkins, Willis, 16. 
Hearst, William R., 41-44. 
Hemphill, J. C, 307. 
Hesing, Washington, 305. 
Hill, Crawford, 307. 
Hine, L. G., 293. 
History, written by A. P., 11 1, 161, 

171, 172. 
Hobson, Richmond P., 160. 
Hoe, Robert, 240. 
Holland as a cradle of liberty, 248 

et seq. 
Hood, Edwin M., portrait. 
Howell, Clark, 305, 307, 310, 316. 



356 



INDEX 



Human interest stories, 212, 213, 

217, 218, 219, 221, 286, 287. 
Hume, Frank, 293. 
Hutchins, Stilson, 17, 294. 

Ideas as property, 66 et seq. 
Ignorance about A. P., 283. 
Illinois Corporation of A. P., 27 

et seq., 173, 179, 180, 278; List of 

officers, 305, 306. 
Illinois Supreme Court, decision in 

Inter-Ocean case, 34 et seq., 173, 

278. 
"Immortals, The" — verse, 301. 
Impartiality of A. P. service, 48, 49, 

in, 180, 181, 273 et seq., 283, 

284. 
Incorporation, certificate of, of 

present A. P., 336. 
Indemnity demanded of Russia by 

Japan, 190 et seq., 271. 
Indianapolis Sentinel, 274. 
Indians, treatment of, 267. 
Injunction against theft of A. P. 

news, 43, 44, 63, 64, 71. 
Intercommunication as a factor in 

U. S. development, 269 et seq. 
International News Service, 41, 44, 

45, 63. 
Inter-Ocean (see Chicago Inter- 
Ocean) . 
Irving, Henry, 230. 
Irwin, Will, on A. P., 280. 
"Is the A. P. a Trust?"— address 

by F. W. Lehmann, 76 et seq. 
Italian earthquake, news of, 271. • 
Italian news, 104, 130 et seq. 
Itineracy, Methodist, 5. 
Ivanes, A. P. correspondent at 

Martinique, 115. 

James, King of England, against 

press, 288. 
Japanese demand for indemnity 

from Russia, 190 et seq., 271. 
Jefferson, Joseph, toast to, by 

M. E. S., 297. 
Jenkins, Arthur, 305. 
Jennings, Frederic B., 307; tribute 

to M. E. S., 62 et seq. 
Johnson, John G., 37. 
Johnston, Kurtz, 293. 
Johnston, R. M., 307, 310, 332; 

portrait. 
Johnstone, "Ned," 161. 
Jones, Dr. Alexander, 94, 95, 176. 
Jones, Senator J. K., 123. 



Journal of Commerce, 92. 
Justinian, Pandects of, 241. 

Kaiser (see Emperor of Germany). 
Kaneko, Baron Kentaro, 190 et seq., 

271. 
Kansas and Missouri Association, 

25- 

Karageorgevitch, Peter, King of 
Serbia, 171. 

Kennan, George, 177, 256. 

King Henry VIII. restricts print- 
ing, 288. 

King of Italy, M. E. S.'s interview 
with, 130, 131. 

King's Charter, 244. 

Kipling — "Recessional," 83, 275. 

"Kiriloff," wounded at Liao Yang, 
166, 167. 

Kloeber, Charles E., 161; portrait. 

Knapp, Charles W., 3, 29, 41, 305, 
308; portrait. 

Knox College, parents of M. E. S. 
at, 8. 

Koenig, Frederick, invents cylinder 
press, 291. 

Komura, Baron Jutaro, 189 et seq. 

Kravchenko, A. P. correspondent, 
164, 166. 

Kurino, Japanese Minister to Rus- 
sia, 153. 

Kuropatkin, General, 145, 162, 198. 

Laborers, statute of, 81. 

Labor question in A. P. reports, 123, 
124, 276. 

Laffan, W. M., 26. 

LaFollette, Robert M., 203, 228. 

Lake Shore Iron Works, 11, 12. 

Lamscott, Russian news censor, 
143, 144, 150. 

Lamsdorff, Count, 141 et seq. 

Langtry, Albert P., 308, 322; por- 
trait. 

Latimer, Hugh, 250. 

Law, enforcement of, 242, 245. 

Law, studies of M. E. S., 8. 

Lawson, Victor F., 3, 15, 17, 21, 
22, 23, 29, 36, 294, 296, 305, 308, 
310, 317; tributes to Stone, xi, 
22 ; portrait. 

Leased wires of A. P., 28, 105, 106, 
184. 

Lecky on public and private morals, 
201. 

Lehmann, Frederick W., letter of 
M. E. S. to, 73; address by, 76. 



357 



INDEX 



Leopold, Prince of Germany, 135, 
136. 

Liars, Swift on, 200, 201. 

Liars' Trust, proposed by Steele, 
202. 

Libel, early notions of, 290, 291. 

Libel, A. P. record regarding, 237, 
238. 

''Light that Did Not Fail, The," 
address at Charleston, S. C, by 
M. E. S., 246 et seq. 

Limitations upon A. P. news, 108. 

Limited publication, 75 . . 

Lincoln, Abraham, assassination of, 
9; Cooper Institute speech, 268. 

Linotype, Stone and the, 293. 

Literature, A. P. men in, 53 ; prop- 
erty rights in, 73. 

LL.D. — honorary degree conferred 
on M. E. S., 7. 

Locke, Rev. Dr. Clinton, on lies, 
200. 

Lombards, The, 248. 

London Times, 117, 230, 291. 

Long, Robert Crozier, 258. 

Lotos Club, N. Y., 189. 

Lusitania, letter of M. E. S. con- 
cerning, 51. 

Lytton, Lord, revives Tomlinson 
essay on cheating, 200. 

Macedonian troubles, 170. 
Mack, Frank W., 109. 
MacLennan, Frank P., 308, 320. 
M.A. degree conferred on M. E. 

S.,7- 

Maligners of the A. P., 48, 200 et 
seq. 

Mantler, Dr., 112. 

Marconi, 130. 

Markbreit, L., 306. 

Martin, Frederick Roy, 308, 311; 
portrait. 

Martin, Harold, 311; portrait. 

Martinique disaster, 114, 115, 116, 
271. 

Massachusetts constitution on free 
press, 208, 225. 

Massacres in Russia, 259; in Tur- 
key, 272. 

Masterpiece of Reporting, A, 109. 

Mattison House, Chicago, 9. 

Mayflower, 252. 

McClatchy, V. S., 308, 310, 314; 
portrait. 

McClaughry, R. W., 18. 

McCormick, Frederick, 167. 



McCormick, Robert S., 141, 155. 
McCullagh, Joseph, 230. 
McCutcheon, John T., 16. 
McFarland, Martha J., wife of 

M. E. S., 11, 55. 
McKelway, St. Clair, 37, 308, 337; 

portrait. 
McKinley, assassination of, 113; 

funeral of, 118; letter re A. P. 

service, 50. 
McLean, John R., 305. 
McLean, William L., 36, 37, 305, 

308, 310, 330, 337; portrait. 
McMichael, Clayton, 305. 
Medill, Joseph, 230. 
Meggy, Percy R., 15, 16. 
Membership in A. P., 274; also see 

By-Laws. 
Membership Corporation Law of 

New York, 37, 62. 
Members of The Associated Press, 

1918, 312 et seq. 
Menzel, German artist, 138. 
Mergenthaler, Ottmar, 293, 296. 
Merrimac, sunk by Hobson, 160. 
Methodist itineracy, 5. 
Mexican War, news enterprise in, 

93- 

Mexico, news of, 183, 220. 
Meyer, George von L., 130. 
Michigan, first newspaper in, 265 

et seq. 
Middlebury College, degree of 

LL.D. to M. E. S., 7. 
Middleton, death of, 166, 167. 
Milan Secolo, 104. 
Milton, "Areopagitica," 208, 225. 
Minneapolis Times, 274. 
"Mir," Russian, 256. 
Missouri Supreme Court decision 

re A. P., 35, 173. 
"Modoc Jim" — verse by M. E. S., 

298. 
Monopoly in news, 33 et seq., 172. 
Moore, Daniel D., 308, 320. 
Morgan, J. P., 203. 
Morgan, W. Y., 308, 319; portrait. 
Morris, Gouverneur, on Zenger 

case, 290. 
Morse, inventor of telegraph, 94, 

174. 
"My Dear Mel"— tribute to M. E. 

S. by Victor F. Lawson, xi. 



Napoleon defeated by Russia, 261 

et seq. 
National conventions, 1 19-122. 



358 



INDEX 



National News Telegraph Co. vs. 
Western Union, 43, 70. 

Nelson, Horatio, 249. 

Nelson, J. B., 161. 

Nelson, William R., 308; portrait. 

New, John C, 294, 295. 

New England Associated Press, 28, 
96. 

New Haven Union, 274. 

New Orleans Picayune, 274. 

News as property, 42, 43, 58, 63, 
66 et seq. 

News, definition and characteristics, 
220 et seq., 274, 278. 

News-gathering, an American busi- 
ness, 91 et seq.; historical sketch, 
174, 286 et seq. 

"Newspaper, The American" — ad- 
dress by M. E. S., 207 et seq. 

Newspapers as governing force, 
270 et seq.; number of, 277. 

News, standards of, 207 et seq., 224 
et seq. 

New York Associated Press, orig- 
inal organization, 25, 177. 

New York Commercial Advertiser, 
100. 

New York Corporation (present 
A. P.) 1 organization and history, 
36 et seq., 101 et seq.; Lists of 
officers, directors and mem- 
bers, 307 et seq. 

New York Courier and Inquirer, 

93. 

New York Evening Post, 100. 

New York Herald, 14, 93. 

New York Journal of Commerce, 92, 

93- 

New York Mail and Express, 228. 
New York Morning Advertiser, 100. 
New York Press, 40. 
New York Staats-Zeitung, 100. 
New York State Associated Press, 

25. 
New York Sun, 10, 33, 39, 40, 41, 

282. 
New York Times, 117. 
New York World, 100. 
Nicaragua, revolt in, 159. 
Nicoll, Delancey, 37. 
Nixon, William Penn, 306 ; portrait. 
Norris, John, 306. 
Norsky Agency, 105. 
North Pole, discovery of, 183. 
Northwestern Associated Press, 25. 
Northwest Territory, factor in U. 

S. history, 265 et seq. 



Norwich, Dutch weavers of, 248 

et seq. 
Noyes, Frank B., 36, 37, 39, 280, 

281, 306, 308, 310, 315, 337; 

tribute to M. E. S., 57; portrait. 
Nye, Bill, 16. 

Ochs, Adolph S., 37, 308, 310, 326, 

337; portrait. 
O'Connor, T. P., on Americans, 

214. 
Officers of A. P., 103, 305 et seq. 
Official bias in A. P. news, 279, 

281. 
Ohio Wesleyan University — degree 

of LL.D. to M. E. S., 7. 
O'Meara, Stephen, 37, 306, 308, 

337- 
Otis, Harrison Gray, 290, 306. 
Ownership of A. P., 4, 27, 32, 37, 

38, 42, 49, 58. 
Oyama, General, 167. 

Paine, Thomas, 249, 254. 

Pandects of Justinian, 241. 

Paris, A. P. Bureau at, 127 et seq. 

P'aris Figaro, 211, 212. 

Paris Temps, 208. 

Parnell, Charles Stewart, 74. 

Parsons, Theophilus, 290. 

Patterson, Thomas M., 308. 

Peace Conference at Portsmouth, 
189 et seq. 

Peary, Robert E., 183. 

Peking, relief of legations, 161. 

Perdue, Eugene H., 306. 

Peter, King of Serbia, 171. 

Petition to Czar — obstacles to print- 
ing, 149, 150, 151. 

Petrograd, news conditions in, 139 
et seq. 

Petropavlovsk, destruction of, 166. 

Philadelphia Associated Press, 25. 

Philadelphia Times, 274. 

Philippines, news of, 103, 183. 

Phillips, Walter P., 26. 

Pierce, Gilbert A., 16. 

Pigeons as news-carriers, 93, 118. 

Piracy of News, 42 et seq., 63, 66 
et seq., 75. 

Plato quoted, 253. 

Plea for unlicensed printing (Mil- 
ton), 208, 225. 

Plehve on censorship, 141, 142 
et seq., 261. 

Pliny, report of destruction of 
Pompeii, 115. 



359 



INDEX 



Pobyedonostseff, on newspapers, 

225. 
Poetry by and about M. E. S., 297 

et seq. 
Police — Russian third section, 259. 
Political bias, absence of, in A. P. 

news, 49, 50, 80, 122, 123. 
Political lying, Swift on, 200. 
Politics in government censorship, 

278, 279. 
Pompeii, destruction of, 115. 
Pony express, 93. 
Pony reports of A. P., 46. 
Pope, the, death of, 116 et seq., 183; 

election, how reported, 118; M. 

E. S. interview with, 132 et seq. 
Port Arthur, fall of, 183. 
Portsmouth peace conference, 189 

et seq., 271. 
" Press-agenting " in A. P. service, 

48. 
Press Association of England, 274. 
Prince Henry of Prussia, 135 et seq. 
Prinetti, interview with, 130. 
Printing, attitude of governments 

toward, 287 et seq. 
Printing-press, 289, 291. 
Probert, L. C, 311; portrait. 
Progressives adequately reported, 

275- 
Property in news, 3, 42 et seq., 58, 
63, 66 et seq., 73 et seq., 80 et seq., 

275. 
Protestants, denunciation of A. P. 

by, 124. 
Protest, right of, 38, 282; also see 

By-Laws. 
Proudhon, 74. 
Publicity as safeguard of right, 222, 

265 et seq., 272. 
Publicity of A. P. service, 48, 204, 

205. 
"Public Opinion, The High Court 

of"— address by M. E. S. at 

Detroit, 265 et seq. 
Publishers' Press, The, 40, 101. 
Pulitzer, Joseph, 100, 222, 223. 
Pulitzer, Joseph, Jr., 308, 324. 
Pulitzer School of Journalism, ad- 
dress at, by M. E. S., 207 et seq. 
Puritans, 251. 

Quirinal and Vatican, 130, 131, 132. 

Races, bulletins, how handled, 107. 
Rampolla, Cardinal, interview with, 
133. 



Rand, William H., 294, 295. 

Rapier, Thomas G., 306, 308; por- 
trait. 

Rate-cutting, 234. 

Rates for leased wires, 39. 

Rathom, John R., 308, 310, 331; 
portrait. 

Reader, rights of the, 19, 207 et seq., 
231 et seq. 

"Recessional" of Kipling, 274. 

Reid, Whitelaw, 96, 217, 294, 308; 
portrait. 

Religious questions, fairness of 
A. P. regarding, 49, 124, 180. 

Reporter, qualifications of, 1 11, 216. 

Republican party, attitude on 
slavery, 268. 

Resolutions of A. P. Board of Di- 
rectors, 350 et seq. 

Responsibilities of the press, 207 et 
seq., 239, 272. 

Restrictions upon use of A. P. 
news, 278. 

Retractions, 19, 181, 232. 

Reuter's Telegram Company, i, 29, 
96, 99, 112, 182, 183. 

Rhodes, Rufus N., 308. 

Richthofen, Baron von, 135. 

Ridder, Herman, 308; portrait. 

Riethle, William H., portrait. 

Riley, James Whitcomb, 16. 

Roberts, Elmer, 161; portrait. 

Robinson, John, 246, 251, 252. 

Rook, Charles A., 308, 310, 330; 
portrait. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, 189 et seq., 
276. 

Rosen, Baron Roman, 190 et seq., 
271. 

Russia, censorship abolished, 139 
et seq., 155, 156; friendship for 
U. S., 261 et seq.; police methods, 
259, 260; revolution of 19 17, 
255 et seq.; war with Japan and 
peace conference, 152 et seq., 189 
et seq. 

"Russian Revolution, The," M. 
E. S. address at Brooklyn, on, 
255 et seq. 

Russians in America, 255. 

Rychitelni, episode of, 157. 

Sale of news forbidden by A. P. 

charter, 37, 38, 40. 
Samoan disaster, 109. 
Sampson, Admiral W. T., 161. 
San Francisco Call, 274. 



360 



INDEX 



San Francisco Call-Union-Bulletin 
Association, 25. 

San Francisco Chronicle Organiza- 
tion, 25. 

Sawyer and Mechanic, II. 

Scammon, Jonathan Young, 13. 

Schenectady Union, 274. 

Schley, Admiral W. S., 161. 

Schneider, George, 306. 

Scott, Harvey W., 308; portrait. 

Scripps, James E., 28, 306. 

Scripps-McRae News Association, 
31-40. 

Scripps News Association, 40. 

Scrooby congregation, 252. 

Seitz, Don C., 308; portrait. 

Self-government in Russia, 256, 257. 

Semaphore in news transmission, 

92, 175. 
Sensational journalism, 221, 222. 
Serfs, Russian, 257. 
Separatists, 248 et seq. 
Service Bulletin of A. P. quoted, 4. 
"Servant of Press and Public, A" — 

tribute to M. E. S. by F. B. 

Jennings, 62. 
Seward, William H., Secretary of 

State, 263. 
Sharkey, Joseph E., portrait. 
1 ' Sharps and Flats ' ' — Eugene 

Field's column in Daily News, 

18. 
Sheldon, Rev. Charles M., 224. 
Siberia, return of exiles from, 258. 
Signals in news transmission, 92, 

95, 109, 117, 175- 
Simonton, James W., 96. 
Slavery forbidden in Northwest 

Territory, 267, 268. 
Slaves, runaway, 6. 
Small, Robert T., portrait. 
Smalley, George W., 200. 
Smith, Delavan, 306. 
Smith, Harry B., 16. 
Smith, Hoke, 306. 
Smith, Richard, 96, 230, 294, 295. 
Smith, Richmond, exploit of, 168, 

169. 
Smith, Thomas H. (despatch boat), 

92. 
Smith, William Henry, 96, 97, 108 

et seq., 294, 306. 
Snyder, Valentine P., 308. 
Southern Associated Press, 27. 
Spanish- American War, 126, 159, 

160, 161. 
Spanish news, how gathered, 104. 

361 



Special despatches mistaken for 
A. P., 187. 

Speech and press, freedom of, 207 
et seq., 224 et seq., 288 et seq. 

Spoflord, Ainsworth, 74. 

"Squatter Sovereignty," 268. 

Standards, in advertising, 231 et 
seq.; in news-gathering, no, 
207, 208, 209 et seq., 216 et seq., 
224 et seq. 

Standard Oil, alleged control over 
A. P., 203. 

Star Chamber, 288. 

Stationers' Company, 288. 

Statute of laborers, 81. 

Stead, William T., 155. 

Steamboat, invention of, 269. 

Steele, Richard, on lying critics, 
201. 

Stefani Agency, 104. 

Sternberg, Baron Speck von, Ger- 
man ambassador, 193. 

Stetson, Jennings & Russell, 37. 

St. Louis Dispatch, M. E. S. 
Washington correspondent of, 17. 

Stone, David M., 96. 

Stone, Rev. Elijah, 5, 6, 7, n. 

Stone and the Linotype, 293 et seq. 

Stone, Elizabeth Creighton, daugh- 
ter of M. E. S., 55. 

Stone, Herbert Stuart, 23, 51, 55. 

Stone, Melville E.: born, Aug. 22, 
1848, 1; first newspaper work, 7; 
education, 7, 55; becomes manu- 
facturer, 1 1 ; great fire of Chicago, 
12, 13; managing editor Inter- 
Ocean, 13; Southern trip, 14; 
Washington correspondent, 14; 
editor Post and Mail, 14; es- 
tablishes Chicago Daily News, 15; 
retires from Daily News, 21, 22; 
European tour, 23, 24; becomes 
president Globe National Bank, 
24; treasurer Drainage Canal 
Board, 24; becomes general 
manager A. P. of Illinois, 28, 29; 
contract with Reuter, 29; re- 
signs from Illinois Corporation, 
35; becomes general manager 
New York Corporation, 41; ar- 
ticles and addresses by, 85 et seq.; 
tributes to, by Lawson, Noyes, 
Jennings, Grosscup, xi, 57, 62, 
66; his acknowledgment to col- 
leagues, 3, 4, 284; miscellaneous, 
306, 308, 311; portraits. 

" Stone, Melville E.," a biographical 



INDEX 



sketch, by John Palmer Gavit, 

1-56. 
"Stone, Melville E., as I Have 

Known Him," by Frank B. 

Noyes, 57-61. 
Stone, Melville E., Jr., 23, 51, 55. 
Stone, Nathaniel F., 11. 
Stone, Ormond, 7, 13. 
Storey, Wilbur F., 10, no. 
Storms, effect on news distribution, 

107, 108. 
St. Paul Globe, 274. 
St. Pierre, destruction of, 115. 
Strike in West Virginia, 276. 
Sultan of Turkey, 272. 
Superintendents of A. P. divisions, 

105; portraits. 
"Supplying the World with News" 

— address by M. E. S. at Franklin 

Institute, 174 et sea. 
Supreme Court of Illinois, decision 

in Inter-Ocean case, 34 et seq., 173, 

278. 
Supreme Court of Missouri, de- 
cision regarding news monopoly, 

35, 173. 

Supreme Court of U. S., appeal to, 
in International News Service 
case, 45. 

Surrender of A. P. membership, 
284; also see By-Laws. 

Svensky Agency, 105. 

Swain, William, 174. 

Swayne, Gen. Wager, 37, 306. 

Swiss Agency, 105. 

Sydow, German Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, 138. 

Taft and Harriman, alleged meet- 
ing, 202, 203. 

Taft, Charles P., 306, 308, 328; 
portrait. 

Taft, William H., 276. 

Takahira, Baron Kogoro, 189 et 
seq. 

Tappan, Arthur, 92. 

Tatler, the, on lying critics, 201. 

Taylor, Bayard, 263. 

Taylor, Gen. Charles H., 309; por- 
trait. 

Telegraph companies, A. P. relation 
with, 97, 98. 

"Telegraph Hill," 177. 

Telegraph, invention of, 94, 270. 

Telegraph operators as correspond- 
ents, 52, 53, 97. 

Telephone, in A. P. service, 46, 184. 



36 



Third section of Russian police, 259, 

260. 
Thompson, Charles T., portrait. 
Thompson, George, 306, 309; por- 
trait. 
Thompson, Howard, 140, 153, 156, 

161. 
Thompson, Slason, 16. 
Tomlinson, Augustus, essay on 

cheating, 200. 
Topeka Capital as "Christian daily 

newspaper," 224. 
Topliff, Samuel, 91, 92, 175, 176, 

177, 291. 
Town, D. E., 309, 310, 320; portrait. 
Town meeting traced to Russian 

"Mir," 256. 
Trenton, U.S.S., lost at Samoa, 109. 
Trivialities in the news, 171. 
Trust, definition of, by Lehmann, 

77- 
Turkish Agency, 170. 
Turks influenced by world opinion, 

272. 
Type, early use by Chinese, 286. 
Typewriter, use of, by A. P. 

operators, 106. 

Underground railroad, 6. 

Union League Club of Chicago, 24. 

United Press Associations, The, 40, 

41. 
United Press, The, 3, 25 et seq., 58, 

98, 99, 1 01, 179 et seq., 204, 274, 

284. 
"Unto Whomsoever Much Is 

Given" — address by M. E. S. 

before Kansas Editorial Associa- 
tion, 224 et seq. 
U. S. Constitution, Gladstone on, 

268. 
U. S. Constitution on free press, 

209, 225. 
Unlicensed printing, Milton's plea 

for, 208, 225. 

Value of A. P. membership, 274. 

Vatican, the, 130 et seq. 

Venetian Republic interdicts print- 
ing, 287, 288. 

Verse by and about M. E. S., 297 
et seq. 

Veterans of A. P. service, 47; por- 
traits. 

Villard, Oswald Garrison, 309, 310, 
326; portrait. 

Vodka, abolition of, in Russia, 257. 

2 



INDEX 



Waite, Judge, M. E. S. studies law 
under, 8. 

Walsh, John R., 26, 236, 306. 

War, censorship in, 185, 186. 

War correspondent, qualifications 
of, 162 et seq. 

War, news methods in, 158 et seq., 
184 et seq. 

Webb, James Watson, 93. 

Webster, Daniel, on Northwest 
Territory, 266. 

Weiss, A. C, 309, 310, 323; portrait. 

Western Associated Press, 25, 26, 28, 
96, 99. 177 et seq. 

Western Union Telegraph Com- 
pany, 39, 43, 97. 

West Indies, news of, 183. 

West Virginia strike, 276. 

Weyl, Walter, on the press, 227. 

Whiffen, Walter C, portrait. 

White, Andrew D., 260. 

White, Horace, 100, 306, 309. 



Willard, Rev. Oliver A., 14. 
Williams, Roger, 254. 
Wilson, John P., 37, 306, 309. 
Wilson, Woodrow, 276. 
Wireless telegraphy, 119, 186, 270. 
Withdrawals from A. P., 274; also 

see By-Laws. 
Witte, Count Sergius, 190 et seq., 271. 
Wolff Agency, 29, 182. 
Worcester Spy, 274. 
"Working for Melville E. Stone"— 

verse, 299. 
Wright, N. C, 161. 

Yacht races, 107. 

Yale University— degree of M.A. to 

M. E. S., 7. 
Youatt, J. R., 309, 311; portrait. 

Zelaya, President of Nicaragua, 159. 
Zemstvos, Russian, 257. 
Zenger, Peter, case of, 208, 290. 



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